Yizani Sifunde providing free literacy training and support to communities
Yizani Sifunde (isiXhosa for ‘Come, let’s read’) is a special reading-intervention project by three prominent South African literacy NGOs – Book Dash, Nal’ibali and Wordworks – and made possible by the Liberty Community Trust.
The project is aimed at early childhood development (ECD) and since its inception in 2021, has provided more than 1,400 young children from communities in East London, Elliot and Komani with highquality storybooks in their home languages.
Through practical demonstration, Yizani Sifunde also works with parents and ECD practitioners to help them share storybooks with the children, and to understand the benefits of doing so.
In its second year, the project has added new sites in and around the Molteno, Burgersdorp, Sterkstroom, Mdantsane and Berlin areas, and is opening its doors to more community members.
Throughout the month of June, all interested people in the above-mentioned communities can receive training on how to establish and run their own reading clubs.
Says Phumelele Keswa, Yizani Sifunde’s project manager: “We have a threepronged approach, which includes ECD centres, parents and communities.
“Having spent the last 18 months working with ECD centres and parents/guardians, we can now include the broader community in our programme.
“We will provide training on ways to become a literacy activist or ‘FUNda Leader’, as we call it.
“The skills will enable the participants to run a home- or community-based reading club.”
Yizani Sifunde’s vision is to provide less privileged communities in the Eastern Cape with high-quality ECD training, an abundance of books for the children and their families, and long-lasting literacy practices for the community and family.
All attendees of the training will receive a free pack of five books, and those who go on to start a reading club in the community will receive a starter-pack of 50 books, a hanging library for their reading
club and other useful training materials and support.
“The project is all about infusing the whole community with books, and this is one of
the ways we can do so,” says Phumelele.
Training sessions start in the first week of June and will run throughout the month.
Each session is limited to 10 participants.
- If you are interested or wish to enrol, contact Phumelele on 066-016-8998. Free reading
and story-sharing resources in different South African languages can also be accessed on www.nalibali.org at zero data cost.