Nalêdi Initiative

The Nalêdi Initiative is all about the children, and creating a brighter future for South Africans. The program launched in March 2010, with 300+ children from 2 provinces.

This year, the Readers Society of South Africa, with the generous donations of M-Net, is thrilled to have enriched the lives of 1000+ children between the ages of 8 and 10 years, from rural areas, in the second annual Nalêdi Initiative. The project ran in 8 schools across 4 provinces, (Western Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, Free State and Gauteng).

The skills we ignite in the learners include a love of lifelong learning, a love and appreciation for reading and imagination (as a tool to help them throughout their lives), as well as analytic and critical thinking (the development of these).

With the endorsement and support of the Department of Education, from whom we received a list of the most deserving schools, Project Literacy dispatched appointed and trained facilitators to the schools, on the approved dates.

Each group of children receive up to 5 weeks of literacy training. The classes incorporated:

• An age-appropriate, pre-assessment and learning style analysis of each child, which gave the facilitator information to map out the strengths and weaknesses of each child, thus enabling them to focus the activities in such a manner that all the participants were able to enjoy their learning;
• The study material is approved by the department of education, and covers the alphabet, punctuation, reading a diary, advertisements, shopping lists, a recipe, dialogue and instructions, as well as plot, setting, character, fiction and non-fiction, reading for detail, consonants and vowels, and much more;
• The activities draws on the child’s experience, while encouraging fantasy and play;
• At the end of the programme, an assessment was completed for each child, and learners received a relevant certificate, during a fun type of “graduation ceremony” where each child got his own children’s book to take home and keep, donated by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

To ensure the longevity of this important initiative, kindly consider a possible donation of R350.00 for a child’s reading education. Your wonderful donation will go a long way in changing a life. And who knows, that child could very well possess the talent to one day become the next Deon Meyer or Mandla Langa.

Download a list of the learners' names...