Story power given wings with radio
COMING on board to spread the power of stories deeper into their communities, radio stations broadcasting to rural areas in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces will be supporting the Nal’ibali campaign’s new Story Powered Schools project.
They will be telling children’s stories in home languages, as well as English, as part of their regular programming from next month.
Story Powered Schools is a pilot project enabled by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to bring Nal’ibali’s proven approach to literacy development to select rural schools.
Identified by the Department of Basic Education as priorities for education interventions, the project will be working with a total of 720 schools in the the Maluti and Bizana districts in the Eastern Cape and the Ugu and Uthukela districts in KwaZulu-Natal, over a three-year period.
Story Powered Schools project manager Michael Cekiso said: “Stories and storytelling lie at the heart of children’s literacy development and while the Story Powered Schools project is an exciting way for Nal’ibali to expand its work with primary schools – and unlock the potential of the pupils who attend them – the support of community radio stations will enable us to reach directly into the homes of the communities we are working with; allowing even more children and their families access to mother-tongue stories.”
Reports show 51% of homes in South Africa don’t have access to leisure books and 85% of the population lives beyond the reach of a public library, making radio an invaluable medium for those in impoverished rural areas.
Now, with the help of the six supporting radio stations, access to this important literacy building block will be opened up to the wider community.
Stations taking part in the Story Powered School project, include Radio Sunny South, Inkonjane FM, Good News Community Radio, Ugu Youth Radio, Radio Khwezi and Link FM.