South Africa, Tuesday, 09 April 2024 – The board of the Nal’ibali Trust, a reading for enjoyment campaign is delighted to announce the appointment of Lorato Trok as the new director, starting 1 May 2024.

Lorato is an early literacy expert who has been working in the field for over twenty years. She has authored several children's books and nonfiction biographies for young adults. Lorato is particularly skilled at creating reading materials for young children that promote reading for enjoyment, especially in African languages. 

Lorato’s influence in promoting African languages and early literacy extends far beyond our borders. She has worked across all nine South African provinces, the African continent, and even North America. As a respected thought leader, she has presented papers on early literacy and multilingualism at prestigious venues such as the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., And was instrumental in launching the “Reading Africa'' programme at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C.

Lorato serves on several boards supporting literacy and education initiatives, including the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture Ministerial Book Policy Development Task Team. Her contributions have been acknowledged by Academia.edu, who named and profiled her as one of the 28 Leading Women in African Publishing & the Book Trade in their journal of The African Book Publishing Record Volume 48, Issue 2, in 2022.

Lorato is no stranger to Nal’ibali and shares our passion for our important work.   We warmly welcome her into the Nal’ibali family and look forward to her contribution as we continue to deepen our impact and expand our reach and influence.

Kay Lala-Sides

Chair

About Nal'ibali

Nal'ibali, which means "here's the story" in isiXhosa, is a nationwide reading-for-enjoyment campaign. Its objective is to ignite and establish a culture of reading among children from birth to 12 years old throughout South Africa. Nal'ibali achieves this by creating captivating reading content in all South African languages and promoting the use of home languages to nurture and strengthen reading culture in children. Nal'ibali stories cultivate a lasting appetite for reading, foster essential literacy skills, and encourage children to develop their own reading experiences. Children who form strong relationships with books and reading materials early on are more likely to adopt and maintain a reading culture. It is the responsibility of adults in children's lives to nurture a love for reading from an early stage to support children's development.

For more information, please contact:

Suri Tsholetsane

Communication Manager

T: + 27 (0) 21 448 6000

C: +27 (0) 63 691 9688

E: suri@nalibali.org