3 MILLION CHILDREN REACHED ON WORLD READ ALOUD DAY
Nal’ibali – the national reading-for-enjoyment campaign – has set a new read-aloud record in South Africa. For the past eight years, the campaign has been celebrating World Read Aloud Day by calling on members of the public to help them read a single story out loud to children across the country in their home language. This year, Nal’ibali received pledges from thousands of South…
WHAT SHOULD CHILDREN’S STORIES DO FOR US?
My 84-year-old grandmother has recently been ailing. Every day for the past week, we have had uncles and aunts, cousins, and grandchildren over at our house to see her. With the house full of hum, in the midst of dinner preparations and the banter of a well-bonded family, from her bedroom, my gran called for help. I quickly ran to her side.
Her breathing was…
Meet our WRAD South African Sign Language storyteller
Nal’ibali, has over the years partnered with Sign Language Education and Development (SLED) to recreate our World Read Aloud Day story in South African Sign Language (SASL). This year Zoliswa Flekisi is our SASL Language storyteller.
Tell us about Zoliswa? Who is she and where is she from?
My name is Zoliswa Flekisi and I am a Deaf, South African Sign Language storyteller, poet and teacher…
LET YOUR CHILDREN FLY… THROUGH STORIES
Nal’ibali, the national reading-for-enjoyment campaign, has been bringing a special story to children to celebrate World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) for the past eight years. In the first year (2013), the campaign reached 13 000 children and in 2021, the goal is to read aloud to 3 million children in a single day.
Nal’ibali celebrates WRAD on Wednesday 3 February in 2021, to draw attention to…
BECOME A STORY CHAMPION WITH NAL’IBALI
This year the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign is offering children and caregivers the opportunity to become Story Champions by growing their own home libraries of South African children’s stories, thereby encouraging them to become regular readers.
‘’All of us – children and adults alike – can become readers one book at a time,” says Yandiswa Xhakaza, Nal’ibali CEO. “Everyone can be a reader if they are…
REWRITING NURSERY RHYMES TO ERADICATE GENDER VIOLENCE
By Sindiwe Magona
Babies come into the world ready to learn what it means to be human, and it is the responsibility of the grownups into whose laps they fall, to teach them, just as their caregivers taught them when they first arrived on earth.
All we know and all we will ever know, is what we have learned. Therefore, while we all lament the sad…
GIVE THE GIFT OF STORIES THIS FESTIVE SEASON WITH NAL’IBALI
“Reading and sharing stories with children is one of the most powerful gifts you can give them. Not only does it help to develop children’s literacy skills, but it also fires up those parts of the brain concerned with imagination, emotion and movement. Ultimately, it helps to create the neural circuits that enable sophisticated thinking and reasoning, helping children to do well at school,”…
THE BUSINESS OF NGOs: STAYING FINANCIALLY FIT IN TIGHT TIMES
Yandiswa Xhakaza is an MBA graduate and the CEO of the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign. Having taken up her position just weeks ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, she is using her business insights to steer the organisation through the recession. She offers tips and advice to other NGOs below.
As a social activist, I understand all too well the mechanics and complexities of development work. There…
My Child only Speaks English
Yandiswa Xhakaza
CEO at The Nal’ibali Trust
I have heard parents aspire for their children to only speak English or they at least prioritise the speaking of the English language above all other languages, particularly not their own African languages. Why? I have often wondered why parent choices around languages often almost place English as superior to their own home languages. I have come to learn…
STANDARD BANK MAKES AN INVESTMENT IN LITERACY WITH NAL’IBALI
Standard Bank has partnered with the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign to launch a special COVID-19 relief project aimed at helping select communities in Gauteng and Limpopo to navigate and alleviate the disruptions to the 2020 school year and beyond, through the power of stories.
While the pandemic has presented major challenges for most families, the partners have chosen to see the opportunity in the crisis and…