Khumo makes reading her business
“We have our day jobs but this project was born out of love and seeing the demand and the need for books of various languages.”
March 8 was International Women’s Day. This day aims to celebrate women’s milestones. The day celebrates stories of ordinary women as makers of history and looks back to decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
GCN spoke to Khumo Tapfumaneyi, one of the co-founders of Ethnikids, an online book store specialising in children’s books that feature characters of colour in various South African languages.
“We are passionate about igniting a love of reading in our children and providing diverse material that more children can relate to and identify with. “We have our day jobs but this project was born out of love and seeing the demand and the need for books of various languages,” said Khumo.
ALSO READ: St Catherine’s head of school encourages the Class of 2021
“The digital space has a wider reach. Previously, we could only accommodate Joburg-based people, but our audience has now grown nationally and internationally since the pandemic,” said Khumo. She said the pandemic set a lot of businesses back but also offered them opportunities. Her advice to women who want to start their businesses is to implement time management.
Tips from Khumo on how to encourage children to read:
• Try to align reading with children’s interests.
• Don’t keep it to one genre.
• Consider books that incorporate augmented reality and comic books.
• Make reading a fun family activity for all.
Her list of top reads include:
– My First Words series, which is a bilingual series that teaches children salutations, food names, family members’ names, items around the house, animals, seasons and much more in multiple languages such as isiZulu, isiXhosa, Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi, Shona, Yoruba, Swahili, Xitsonga and Tshivenda.
– Ambani Africa foundation books about My Body, Numbers, Animals and Colours and Things. They are written in isiZulu and English and you can download a free app that allows you to use augmented reality to engage with books in English, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Setswana, Sepedi or Tshivenda.
– Cory in the Universe, a fictional book aimed at children aged nine to 15 about a group of diverse children’s reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa.
– Learning 123s in IsiZulu or Setswana or Learning ABCs in isiZulu or Setswana.
– Blissful Life at Gogo and Mkhulu’s Village, available in all official languages about Lihle and Ntando who love visiting their gogo in the village over school holidays.
Contact the newsroom by emailing: Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za , and Lebogang Sekgwama lebogangs@caxton.co.za.
