As I had expected my arrival at London Heathrow Airport was on a dark, cold and very wet morning in the UK. I was further inconveniently dropped at the end of Kings Lane owing to my driver’s unwillingness to take his car down the muddy lane.
The help2read Literacy Tutor Programme kicked off in 2018 with 112 dynamic young individuals, 65 of which were from Paarl, Wellington, Franschhoek and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, and 47 from Diepsloot and Alexandra in Gauteng.
In September, we welcomed our new captain-in-chief and CEO, Lynn Campbell, to the help2read team. This exciting transition provided us with the perfect opportunity to assess our work to date, plan for the future and identify sustainable and effective strategies…
On 16 October 2018, the Cape Town based Levi Strauss team gave the learners at Schotsche Kloof Primary School a special treat. Dressed up in fairytale characters and inspiring t-shirts, the Levis team could be seen at various spots around the school, spending valuable time reading with learners before donating two book boxes to the school.
Earlier this year, help2read partnered with Kaya FM’s Kaya Cares to provide a sustainable literacy intervention programme in the new container library gifted to Entandweni Primary School in Soweto.
On the 8th of October, I left help2read’s UK office in Oxford Circus to work alongside my colleagues in South Africa for 2, 5 weeks. On arrival, I attended an annual celebration event for one of help2read’s literacy development collaboration partners, Partners for Possibility.
It’s 8 am on Monday morning at Ekukhanyisweni Primary School in Alexandra township, Johannesburg. Refilwe Matomela, a 24-year-old resident of Alexandra, sits down with a Grade 4 learner to start a one-on-one reading session in the container library at the school.
Tomorrow, September 8th, is International Literacy Day, a day intended to focus awareness on the state of (il)literacy in the world and to support initiatives intended to empower communities and bring about change and improvement in worldwide literacy development and promotion.
Grant Brown, co-MD and Chief Operating Officer of Zando, an online fashion store, has encouraged his staff to get involved in the community. Their support is already pledged to The Sunflower Fund and the World Wide Fund for Nature; this attests to Zando’s commitment to making a difference in communities and the environment.
South African literacy development organisation, help2read, has partnered with LightSail Education to bring the award-winning digital literacy platform to help2read’s partner schools around South Africa.
Registered SA Non-Profit 063-979 PBO 930027054 UK Charity Reg No. 1109567 Registered Office: Oak Farm Cottage, Mill Street, Gislingham, Suffolk, IP23 8JT
