12 – 13 March 2019
Mbongweni and Mbizana, Eastern Cape
As a part of the second Mbizana Literacy Week, we brought together 50 early childhood development (ECD) practitioners from the greater Mbizana area. These early teachers and caregivers came from different ECD sites – based in homes, centres and communities. They came from close to Mbizana town as well as the most rural of Mbizana communities.
Ms. Bukelwa Yuze from a partner organisation, Word Works, facilitated two workshops for ECD practitioners. The workshops focused on speaking, reading and writing with babies and young children. Participants discussed how to speak and listen to babies and children from 0 to 5. They practiced how to read books with babies and young children. They practiced reading-aloud strategies for individual children and groups of children. They discussed the importance of using books to talk with children, as well as supporting children with pre-reading and pre-writing activities. They made their own books using materials such as magazines and newspapers.
The goal of the workshops was to distribute high quality isiXhosa children’s books to each ECD Centre, and to ensure that practitioners used the books effectively to develop an early and joyful relationship with reading among children. At the end of each workshop, each early childhood caregiver received 20 high quality children’s books in isiXhosa to use in their homes, centres and communities. The books were made possible by a grant from the National Lottery Commission (NLC).
#MbizanaLiteracyWeek; #OurChildrenWillRise; #ReadingWithOurChildren #NLC