Each year since it has been leading literacy change in SA by galvanising adults into reading with their children through its annual World Read Aloud Day celebration. World Read Read Aloud Day (WRAD) is a sustained initiative to promote a culture of reading aloud with children amongst families, parents, caregivers, educators, and society. 13 401 children were reached with Nal’ibali’s first call to action in 2013.
In 2021, the campaign, together with its partners, read aloud to over 3 million children. The growth of this initiative suggests that South Africans have embraced the call to read aloud on the day. Reading is the foundation of education, and Nal’ibali works hard to promote reading and literacy throughout the year. As opposed to previous years when Nal’ibali’s focus has been on increasing the number of children being read to on WRAD, in 2022 the target remains 3 million children.
However, the NGO aims to sign up a million families, with the help of partners such as Standard Bank, Liberty Community Trust, VW, and City of Cape Town Library and Information Services to commit to reading regularly to their children over the next three years, starting on WRAD. “Where schools play a key role in teaching children the mechanics of reading, families play an equally key role in helping children to fall in love with stories and books,” says Katie Huston, acting director of Nal’ibali.
“Children who regularly hear fun and engaging stories understand how books work and are more motivated and better equipped to learn to read themselves and to keep reading.” Research also shows that families who participate in WRAD keep up a sustained habit of reading and sharing stories. Family literacy is essential for many reasons; one of the biggest is that when family members can read and write, it helps break the cycle of poverty.
“For children to enjoy a story, they must be able to understand it! Because of this, we commission a brand new story in all 11 official South African languages each year,” explains Huston. The story is also made available in South African Sign Language and Braille through partners, SLED (Sign Language Education and Development) and Blind SA. “We then encourage adults everywhere to pledge to read it aloud to children on the day,” Huston concludes. A Party at the Park This year’s story, ‘A Party at the Park’, was written by Mabel Mnensa, author of the children’s book ‘Kantiga Finds the Perfect Name.’
Also read: Gripping reads for the week
‘A Party at the Park’ has also been translated into an additional six languages (Swahili, Shona, French, Chichewa, Portuguese, and Lingala) to cater for the approximately two million children who are foreign nationals living in South Africa. In addition, neighbouring African countries have been invited to join Nal’ibali’s WRAD celebration. This is a landmark step for the campaign as it starts to build a pan-African resolve to get children and families reading, and share its reading resources beyond South Africa’s borders.
Members of the public can join Nal’ibali’s 2022 WRAD celebration by making their pledge to read the official story with their children on Wednesday, February 2, via the campaign’s website, www.nalibali.org, or by WhatsApping ‘WRAD’ to 060 044 2254. The official story is available for free download from these platforms and pledges can choose to keep reading with Nal’ibali throughout the year by opting into its family-reading programme.
Pledgers are also encouraged to share pictures of their read-aloud sessions online, tagging Nal’ibali (@NalibaliSA) or using the hashtag #NalibaliWRAD2022. Reading aloud with children is the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills required to learn to read. Research shows that storybook reading and storytelling in a safe, familiar environment promotes family cohesion and intimacy.
It boosts children’s self-esteem and contributes to building confident students. Reading improves school achievement and children also develop communication, problem-solving, and cooperation skills as well as increase their general knowledge and learning about peer relationships.
Storybooks help expose children to social situations, introduce moral dilemmas, relationship dynamics as well as conflict and problem-solving skills through characters. In celebration of the decade of WRAD, a bumper 32-page edition of Nal’ibali’s reading-for-enjoyment newspaper story supplement has been printed, featuring stories from the past ten years. There is also a limited-edition book featuring the past ten stories to encourage the longevity of the reading campaign.
