Turning pages, igniting minds: A collaborative journey

Last year, through the impactful partnership with Bookdash and the unwavering financial support of MySchool, we embarked on a three-year mission to gift 16,000 young children in Worcester, Nkomazi, and Pongolo with three of their very own story books written in their home language. We call this programme Read and Play at Home.

The programme is backed by growing evidence of the importance of ‘Books in Children's Hands and Homes’ as well as the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) that revealed a staggering 81% of South African Grade 4 learners could not read for meaning. In the study, South Africa ranked last among 43 countries, emphasising the need for change.

This year, our implementation partners have been working with local ECD practitioners to lead community-based workshops that equip parents to create nurturing reading environments using our specially crafted booklets. Parents leave these workshops with booklets and children's books, ready to embark on a reading journey with their little ones. In a recent study conducted by Bookdash, findings showed that parents now understand the importance of reading and how it is not confined to school premises. They are becoming responsive, engaged parents, promoting literacy and strengthening the parent-child bond. Based on the success of the programme so far, our goal is to roll this out in all eight of our communities in the upcoming years by bringing more partners on board.