Reamogetse reads life into his community
Local youth shares on the importance of reading and how he hopes to change the world of children around him.
Reamogetse Lebeko writes:
I didn’t think that in this day and age, I’d come across a child who can’t read. I assumed that by the age of eight or nine, every child would be able to read basic Grade 1-level books.
However, I’ve come to realise we live in an imperfect society, where some children don’t have access to school and can’t read. Five years ago, I met a young boy called Amo. He was the nicest kid I’d ever met. He was fascinated as I read him, The Gruffalo, a book my Grade 3 teacher used to read to us in primary school. Amo and I enjoyed the book, and it became apparent that although he was in school, he had no access to books and had not learnt how to read.
This struck me deeply. It had always broken my heart to leave for school in the morning and see all the children sitting in the streets with no access to a class. But now I realised that some schools don’t have reading books, and my little friend, so bright and excited by books, was being denied the opportunity to learn the powerful tool and simple joy of reading.
Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘Education is the key to success in life and teachers make an impact in the lives of their students.’ I knew then that I wanted to help people become successful.
I may not be a qualified teacher but I would like to help disadvantaged kids who may not have access to any libraries or books to read. As Growing Champions NPO helped me with my education to ensure I got a matric that opened doors to tertiary education, I heard Coach Sam repeat over and over, ‘Do all you can with all you have’, as well as ‘Change the world. Be the change’.
Amo and the kids on the streets of Windsor gave me the motivation and courage to live out that Growing Champions mantra. In my own small way, I am learning how to help children discover reading and I’m growing a vision to run reading programmes.
I’ve tried my best to dedicate my time on weekends to teach a few kids how to read and am excited that my soccer teammate, Lungani Mbatha, has come on board to help me.
We grew up in Windsor East together and we learnt that certain family situations keep kids away from school. We want to be the bridge to school. The hope that leads them to a better education. Working with Lungani has been phenomenal, because we are slowly learning different methods on how we can help these children.
To everyone out there, let’s educate our nation.
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