Reading with FunDza changes lives

The FunDza Literacy Trust is on a mission to give the underprivileged majority of our country’s youth easy access to relevant and exciting books and KwaDukuza is on their list.

The Cape Town-based trust creates, collects and shares books and stories that relate to the lives, hopes and dreams of SA teens and young adults.

They focus on schools that are situated in low-income areas and service children from poor communities.

They recently donated 10 books to the North Coast Courier’s book drive, which helped to stock up the empty library at Mbekamuzi Combined Primary School in Thembeni, KwaDukuza.

FunDza marketing and stakeholder relations officer, Shelley Bolle said they believe that reading can change lives.

“The staff at FunDza are passionate about literacy and want to see our youth reading.

“It keeps the kids out of trouble, keeps them focused and hopefully in school too.

“Having previously worked for an HIV focused NGO, I did not realise the importance of literacy.

“We were sharing material far and wide, but what is the point if no one can read it?

“It is a fundamental building block, our nation needs to learn to read, and reading for enjoyment develops a good habit,” said Bolle.

The 2014 Annual National Assessments found that grade nines scored an average of 34% for English – the language of teaching and learning.

Knowing that low levels of education and literacy keep people trapped in poverty, FunDza aims to improve education and literacy by giving children the tools and resources needed to further their skills.

Research shows that the more young people read, the faster they learn the language skills for study and life.

According to the 2014 School Libraries Report, 86% of schools do not have a stocked library.

One of FunDza’s solutions to addressing this need is to provide schools with sufficient books to start a classroom-based library and to explain how to manage the lending system and use the books, which gives pupils the opportunity to read books for fun.

For R12,000 schools can get the the FunDza Classroom Library starter pack which includes 120 locally relevant books aimed at South African teens, resource material for the teacher to help run the lending system, delivery of the books and resource material, a monthly newsletter for the teacher providing ongoing support and access to FunDza expertise in using the books with pupils.

In return, FunDza Classroom Library supporters receive photos and feedback from the school, a donation receipt and section 18A certificate to confirm that the donation is a tax deductible expense and written confirmation that the donation counts towards SED (socio-economic development) points for your B-BBEE scorecard.

Sign up to be a Classroom Library Supporter by emailing Shelley Bolle on shelley@fundza.co.za or calling them on 021 709 0688.

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