NEWS, VIEWS & OTHER INTERESTING THINGS

“A child needs to be read to, and a child needs to read. Reading fuels the fires of intelligence and imagination, and if they don’t blaze well before primary school, a child’s education — a child’s life —may be an endless game of catch-up”.

It all started with a girl and her dog! Just over 10 years ago Marielle Moss and her dog Maya laid the foundations for help2read, recruiting the first six volunteers who provided reading help and literacy skills development to Grade 3 and 4 learners at Muizenberg Junior School in the Western Cape.

Today 10 years later we celebrate the amazing work of hundreds of volunteers whose dedication and absolute commitment has so far helped more than 10,000 primary school children in master the skill of reading, one that so many of us take for granted.

The concept of help2read is simple:

• find out from teachers which kids need the most help with reading

• train literate volunteers and have them spend uninterrupted one-on-one time with these kids twice a week at the school playing word games and reading with them.

This one-on-one attention adds real value to their lives, as well as the lives of others.  The children’s reading improves by leaps and bounds, and so does their self-esteem, resulting in all round academic improvement.

Teachers at participating school unanimously report that the programme not only helps master letter and word recognition and reading skills, it changes attitudes towards reading and learning and builds confidence and self-esteem which has benefits across all areas of school performance.

There is evidently no investment more valuable or sustainable than literacy.  Once made, it can never be taken away.  We invite you to join us for the next ten years so that together we are able to reach ten times ten thousand children!  Sign up for our newsletter, volunteer your time, sponsor a child, a school or a reading resource “book box” for a classroom or email us with any fundraising or other ideas you believe could contribute to our work.

AND PLEASE join us at our 10th Anniversary celebration on 6th February between 10am and 1230pm at Muizenburg Primary School.  With your participation we hope to reach 10,000 children a year within the next decade.