Representing a first for South Africa, The International Literacy Institute, in partnership with Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy in South Africa, and under the sponsorship of the South African Department of Education launched on July 23, 2009, the Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI-SA), a multimedia education programme for the promotion of literacy and other learning skills in South Africa. The initiative which kicks off in the Limpopo Province - serving as a model for implementation nationwide - will assist to overcome the countrys major illiteracy challenge through the combined power of local (mother-tongue) language learning and multimedia technology. The easy-to-use multimedia material has been developed to date in Sepedi, Tshivenda, xiTsonga and English, aligned with ABET levels 1 through 3, and also includes computer literacy skills. The BFI-SA soon plans to develop similar materials in the remaining seven official languages which will serve as the platform to reach poor and rural provinces such as Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal, Northern Cape, Free State and the Northwest Province.