About help2read
HELP2READ is an NPO on a mission to erase illiteracy in South Africa. Our work seeks to address systemic risks that are founded on low levels of literacy in the country’s schoolgoing children.
At the national level, help2read works to address the problems of:
Poor child literacy levels that impede the establishment of a foundation for educational achievement, a key component of the development goals of any thriving nation. Without adequate literacy levels the future of South Africa’s national competitiveness is threatened.
This, coupled with high unemployment rates and low levels of skills in the adult population, creates a future of grave uncertainty; and
Low levels of employability, in part due to a lack of skills and literacy in the population, are evident in the high levels of unemployment despite high vacancy rates and result in persistent inequality and poverty.
At the school level, help2read aims to address the problems of:
Low student morale as a result of learner difficulties in understanding and accessing materials which in turn feeds the high observed school drop-out rate.
Poor academic performance with progressive, entrenched learning backlogs accumulating over time reinforcing problems of low morale and poor achievement.
Large school classrooms that are typically under-resourced and without teacher support staff which means learners receive limited attention and cannot be individually assessed and supported when facing difficulties. The supplementary literacy tutoring provided by help2read volunteer reading helpers and literacy tutors provides crucial support to these educators.
Over the past 12 years, we’ve worked in more than 225 schools and helped 17 500 children access literacy support to learn to read or improve their reading for meaning skills. Our literacy intervention programmes are run at public primary schools in the Western Cape and Gauteng, and provide children who struggle to read with one-on-one attention from a volunteer reading helper or community literacy tutor. Through consistent literacy input, reading help and fun activities, the children who participate in our programmes not only learn to read, they fall in love with it.
website: www.help2read.org