12 – 16 March 2019,
Mbizana, Eastern Cape
Hundreds of children, Early Childhood Development (ECD) practitioners, primary school teachers and parents from Mbizana and surrounding areas came together for a week of activities focused on developing children’s joy of reading and writing. Accepting that a child’s educational success depends upon reading both inside and outside of classrooms, the goal of the Mbizana Literacy Week is to celebrate the champions of literacy across the community, and engage in a number of creative activities to mobilise literacy activity into the future.
The week included a number of dialogues, workshops and activities with foundation phase teachers, ECD practitioners, parents, community members and learners. A classroom was converted into a makeshift theatre, where children watched movies (including the beloved “Black Panther”) often for the first time.
The literacy week closed with a “Book Jam” in the town of Mbizana, where children’s books where distributed to community members and discussions were held about the importance of reading to children. Across the week, over 4,000 books were distributed to parents, schools and ECD sites in the greater Mbizana area.
The Mbizana Literacy Week, and the message of reading to and with children, was covered by Isoleszwe lesiXhosa, the isiXhosa newspaper with the largest distribution across the Eastern Cape.
The books were donated by our generous partners in literacy including: Word Works, Biblionef, Nal’ibali, David Phillips, FunDza, Praesa, Book Dash, Buffalo City Municipality Library, Jacana, Shine Literacy Trust and Room to Read.
#OurChilrenWillRise; #BuildingVibranium; #NMI; #MbizanaLiteracyWeek; #PartnersForLiteracy