Because it's good. It's well-written, thought-provoking, based on solid data and helps understand what truly motivates people who are in deep shit. While it has not been applied to African villages, they did replicate the experiment with disadvantaged ghetto-dwellers in Mexico.

In the experiment described in the article, the ability to read was a prerequisite for the course, not the desired outcome. The desired outcome was to teach a method of reflection that goes beyond your first immediate reaction, and show people that thinking about what you do can be useful. The effects on the test population were continued education, employment, prevention of violence, and the confidence to demand better working conditions at the workplace. This for only a half-year's work and a cost of 2000USD per person. If you do not consider that valuable enough to read, what are you doing reading its comments?

I read about two pages of the article and there was nothing of the sort you describe, just anecdotes. Not even real anecdotes, more like atmosphere descriptions. Apparently it gets better, but I simply can not read every long winded opinion piece on the internet. If their message is important, they should aim for a more concise writing style.

The only indicator that it might be worthwhile to read is a couple of people here claiming it is important. But there are also people who claim reading the bible is important. I was simply asking for some convincing reasons to invest my time into reading that article.