South Africans are struggling with a significant reading crisis. The country placed last in reading literacy among 50 other countries in the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, largely because of a lack of access to resources such as books and libraries.

Reading allows you to travel to new and distant worlds and to live through the experiences of a diverse range of people from different cultures, backgrounds, and lifestyles unlike our own, learn something we didn’t know before, and acquire new skills.

But even more than that, reading enriches lives by enhancing critical and creative thinking, encouraging personal development by building empathy and growing confidence, and even improving well-being and mental health. In fact, many studies show that introducing reading as early as possible in a child’s life leads to better literacy skills and encourages them to engage more with the world around them.

“Improving literacy and reading comprehension across South Africa is imperative to grow generations of educated, engaged, and empowered citizens. Ensuring that young people have access to reading tools and resources is key to facilitating such improvement,” says Lea-Anne Moses, Executive Director and Trustee at Fundza Literacy Trust.

While there is already a vast pool of free reading resources available online, many students, parents and educators are unaware of where and how to access them. This is especially true when finding easily accessible local African stories and book resources.

So, here are five of the best places young people can access free reading tools in their preferred language, which will help them get into a reading and learning state of mind ahead of the reopening of schools across the country.

1. For early development of young children look to African Storybook

African Storybook is an open-access digital library containing 3 723 picture storybooks for early reading in 234 languages from across the continent aimed at improving children’s literacy, enjoyment, and imagination. Nearly all the storybooks on the website and app are written by African authors and range in content from traditional folktales to poems, and songs, along with educator support material, stories of how the storybooks have been used and their impact across Africa, as well as guides on how to use the website and app, create a storybook, read offline and even download and print storybooks.

2. To promote a love for reading in children, head to READ to RISE

This non-profit organisation is committed to promoting youth literacy in schools in South Africa’s under-resourced communities. Research has proven that children who love reading, excel at school and go on to become constructive members of society. It all starts with reading.

The READ to RISE programmes are aimed at encouraging reading amongst young people, and to increase book ownership. The organisation distributes brightly coloured, high-quality books that are educational, entertaining and inspirational to underprivileged schools across the country.

In confronting the shortage of libraries in South African schools, READ to RISE created the mini-library, which is a brightly coloured bookshelf containing 50 new, age-appropriate, covered reading books in a mix of languages that reflects the children’s home languages.

Some of these books are available in downloadable format through the Oaky and the Sun series here.

3. For kids’ reading at home, WordWorks is a very helpful resource

WordWorks offers informal, practical, fun and engaging reading activities, in four languages. The main purpose is to help parents and caregivers support their young children’s learning (from as early as age 0 to 8) at home.

The WordWorks platform also provides practical and engaging ways to talk, play, sing and share books with babies and young children through the Wordworks App. The App has in addition been designed to support their drawing and early writing, and how to enjoy maths through everyday activities.

Parents and guardians can create short lessons through the platform’s TIME (Together In My Education) home learning programme to help build essential foundational language, mathematics and life skills for Grade R and Grade 1.

4. To encourage reading for pleasure check out Nal’ibali

Created to embed a culture of reading for enjoyment within children from birth to the age of 12, the Nal’ibali campaign website offers a wide collection of multilingual stories that can be read online or downloaded and printed. The platform also provides tools to improve reading comprehension such as Learning Board which helps children learn and understand any new words they come across when reading a story. Additionally, caregivers, teachers and Early Childhood Development Practitioners can use this tool to track the number of new words learnt. The website also offers training to adults on how to engage in fun reading activities with children to nurture a love of reading.

5. To grow young people’s reading and writing skills dive into FunDza

Dedicated to sparking and sustaining a reading revolution in South Africa, the FunDza Literacy Trust aims to encourage young people to not only read for pleasure but to author their own stories. Through its mobile site and the FunDza App for android devices, young people now have access to a library of local stories written by themselves and their peers about them and for them.

Young people looking to have their own stories published on the site can send in their creative writing for review and even register for online courses to improve their language and comprehension skills. The site also includes stories from some of Southern Africa’s top writers, such as Sifiso Mzobe, Lauri Kubuitsile, Amanda Ngema and Yewande Omotoso, as well as regular blog posts on issues such as black tax, gender-based violence, inspiring South African stories and more. Currently, close to 500 000  users access Fundza content monthly.

“One of the biggest challenges to encouraging and building a culture of reading for fun and enjoyment is the fact that it can often be seen as a chore or an obligation because of the way reading is usually approached in the classroom. This is why adults, caregivers and educators need to actively engage with young children to build excitement around the stories they read,” adds Moses.

“It is also just as important to facilitate an encouraging reading environment for teenagers and young adults as an appetite for reading will help in the development of critical thinking and analytical thinking, improve their concentration and memory, strengthen their own writing ability, and even gain a better understanding of the world around them.”