Did you know that more than 750 million people across the globe cannot read?

Every year on 20 March, World Storytelling Day celebrates the art of storytelling and strives to promote reading and literacy to help reduce these numbers.

ALSO READ: VIDEO: Reading fiction for fun improves language skills

It’s a day for people around the globe to listen, read a story out loud and tell their own stories. READ Educational Trust is all too aware of the power of literacy, and as a non-profit organisation, focuses on promoting literacy across South Africa.

They have used their annual Word Warrior Competition to continue drawing attention to creative young wordsmiths, encourage reading and writing, and promote literacy among the youth in SA.

Aimed at learners from the ages of nine to 16, the Word Warrior Competition requires entrants to write about engaging, fresh and authentic dialogue – for a play, a movie or to use in a story.

The winning title of the Word Warrior 2020 Competition went to Adam Schoeman from Grayston Preparatory School in Morningside, Gauteng.

Adam was extremely pleased to win the R1 000 voucher, and his school was ecstatic to hear that his winning entry won them R5 000 worth of books – a wonderful boost in the quest for literacy.

Many go throughout the day engaging in storytelling without even realising it. Making up a bedtime story for your child, telling a friend about a funny, embarrassing moment, recounting a childhood memory or reading your favourite story book out loud are all examples of storytelling.

Storytelling improves both memory and the ability to use narrative language, which is necessary for developing literacy.

Storytelling also helps children to become better listeners and better readers while building their vocabulary.

A super way of sharing stories with the family and mimicking reading aloud this World Storytelling Day is to download the series of audio books available on the READ Educational website – https://www.read.org.za/audio-books/

Visit https://www.read.org.za/ to find out more and join the conversations on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/READEduTrust/, Twitter: https://twitter.com/READEduTrust, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/read_educational_trust/

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