Thanks to MySchool card users, 19 Gauteng schools got a literacy boost and Good Things Guy was at the Lerato Educational Centre to see it happen!
Gauteng, South Africa (08 March 2018) – The level of literacy in South Africa is really low. A report done in 2017 found that 78% of South African children in grade 4 were unable to read for meaning. Literacy programmes took on the task of changing this by offering learners in underprivileged schools better opportunities.
Shine Literacy has been around for over a decade and is constantly working to improve young children’s reading ability by having volunteers work one-on-one with children that are struggling. They identify a child in need and pair them with an adult that works to get their reading skill better before heading to Grade 4.
MySchool, MyVillage, MyPlanet offers a really simple way to give back to your favourite charities. All you have to do is swipe your card, and the retailer gives a portion of your spending to the three charities you selected. In December, MySchool teamed up with Woolworths, which provided additional donations for every MySchool swipe in its stores for the Shine Literacy programme.
These funds were part of their Christmas drive and were given to the Shine Literacy programme to help boost literacy in South Africa. If you do not learn to read in your first three years of school, you are effectively locked out of all further academic learning; because in Grade 4, the shift moves from learning to read to reading to learn.
The Good Things Guy team was invited to the Lerato Education Centre in Jackson’s Drift, Johannesburg to see one of the Shine Literacy Chapters. The school was given “Boek Hoeks” (reading corners) for their grade 2 and grade 3 classes to help boost reading. 30 “Boek Hoeks” were established in under-resourced schools across Gauteng for 2018.
“Woolworths has been a dedicated supporter of quality education in South Africa for decades,” says Sally Munro, Special Occasions Marketing Manager at Woolworths.
“Literacy is fundamental to learning. We are delighted that our Christmas giving efforts of 2017 can give NPOs such as Shine Literacy and Book Dash a much-needed boost to address the issues and cultivate an empowering culture of reading in our country.”
Being at the school was an absolute pleasure. We were given a tour of the classrooms with “Boek Hoeks” as well as the newly stocked school library and resource centre. While there, we were treated to a reading by a BookDash author Zanele Dlamini. She read her proudly South African books to the children and they loved it! We got to hear “Sindi & the Moon” as well as her latest book “The Rainbow Cloud“.
Because stories matter… and reading should be celebrated. The simple act of shared reading can make such a difference. Their faces say it all! What an honour to hand over another skill that I completely take for granted. #LoveReading pic.twitter.com/9bjWDn4sWv
— Brent Lindeque (@BrentLindeque) March 7, 2018
Book Dash is an NPO that brings together teams of volunteer writers, illustrators and designers to produce beautiful, relevant South African children’s books in 12-hour workshops. The books were available to purchase at Woolworths stores and for every book purchased, one was donated to a school. In the end, 10,000 books were donated to schools in South Africa.
Book Dash is an open-licenced resource, meaning that you can visit the website and print any of the books created by the volunteers. These books are African storybooks they not only build on our heritage but give the children the opportunity to read in their home language.
We had an incredible day at the Lerato Education Centre.
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