Story Sparkers open new world of reading for children
THE Nal’ibali reading-forenjoyment campaign relies on a team of dedicated local people in rural and urban districts around South Africa who ignite or spark the love of reading in children.
Story Sparkers are communitybased volunteers who receive a stipend to assist the Nal’ibali project in establishing reading clubs, encouraging community members to form local action groups for reading enjoyment and conduct readingworkshops. Nokuphiwa Tshabane is a Story Sparker for her community on the Eastern Cape’s verdant Wild Coast in the Bizana district across the Mtamvuna Bridge.
The area is rural and community members survive by growing and then selling vegetables and fruit on the street.
Tshabane has studied and worked in this community all her life, working as a library assistant at a local primary school before volunteering as a Story Sparker for Nal’ibali. just Heather Robertson chatted to her:
A Story Sparker is a community mobiliser for reading for enjoyment. We promote a culture of reading and writing among kids from foundation phase in order to help them learn their vernacular and English as a second language. The Story Sparker can infuse joy by using games, rhymes and songs. A book can take you to many places that you have never been. When I was young at home, we were very poor and no one was educated. I told myself that I would change that situation through reading, which I have done, and am bringing hope to children who are in the same situation as I was.