News & Articles

Athol Williams November is Picture Book Month and the power of picture books is evident in the numerous engagement options they offer a child. These multiple options offer a broadened approach to reading. I count five different ways in which picture books can be used by children, in effect, making a picture book, five books in one.  The first three ways relate to children reading…

Increasing pressure on the publishing industry, plus a shrinking reading culture, hasn’t changed the enormous lifelong benefit of reading to children from early childhood. With South Africa having eleven official languages, how do we ensure children across the country access these benefits in their mother tongue? By Jade Jacobsohn, Managing Director at Nal’ibali.  ————- According to UNESCO, “Illiteracy and poverty constitute a mutually reinforcing, vicious cycle…

[To listen to the winning stories, click here. ] Story Bosso is a multilingual storytelling contest designed to provide aspiring storytellers with an opportunity to showcase their talent and to promote storytelling in all official South African languages. It’s an initiative of South Africa’s national-reading-for-enjoyment campaign, Nal’ibali. The theme for this year’s talent search was ‘South African Heroes’.  By remembering and telling the stories of our heroes, the…

DGMT and Primedia have recently launched one of the country’s largest-ever national outdoor media campaigns, demonstrating the power of early childhood development to change the future of South Africa. The billboard campaign will showcase three large-scale initiatives to prevent nutritional stunting and promote early learning and reading –namely Grow Great, SmartStart and Nal’ibali. It comes at a time when South Africa is looking for greater…

Reading-for-joy as a strategy for development must be a priority on South Africa’s agenda. In fact, it needs to be our next big revolution, says Dr Sebabatso Manoeli. As Literacy Month ended in September, it is vital that our literacy woes do not fall to the wayside until the month of September rolls back round again. We have heard repeatedly that, according to the most…