There is a reading crisis in South Africa. On international reading scales, children in South Africa perform very badly; in fact, South Africa comes last out of 50 countries, behind less developed countries like Egypt and Morocco.
Reading with understanding is the basic building block for good literacy and communication. TVS is addressing this by working directly with teachers to deliver targeted teaching of reading and promote reading for pleasure for learners. We are also training members of the wider communities to run after-school village reading clubs.
The reading clubs help to instil in all children and adults a love of, and respect for books. Access to good quality books and reading materials is an important part of developing a culture of reading from an early age. TVS has set up a communal library as a resource for both schools and reading clubs and through the Biblionef Foundation and bookdash.org we have acquired story books in Xhosa for younger readers to supplement those in English.
We need more books for older age groups and books are expensive in South Africa so any donations towards the cost of these would be gratefully received.
Help us continue our work
