Most of South Africa's poorest communities lack educational infrastructure & resources, leading to 78% of Grade 4 children not being able to read for meaning in any language. Illiteracy breeds exclusion and perpetuates poverty. Help2read builds literacy by training unemployed young people as literacy tutors and helping them establish & operate community reading programmes in safe educational spaces that promote family literacy & a love of reading and helps children secure a good future.
There is an enduring literacy crisis in South Africa. According to a recent PIRLS research, 78% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning, 29% are completely illiterate. The majority of primary schools are severely under-resourced & overcrowded with just 2 or 3 books shared between an entire classroom. Furthermore, there are no community libraries in townships and few homes have books, so most children cannot engage in reading activities throughout holiday periods, leading them to fall behind.
Our literacy intervention programmes are run in primary schools where children who struggle to read are provided one-on-one reading help. Moreover, we establish educational infrastructure in communities through Reading Clubs. Through consistent literacy input, reading help & fun activities, the children we help don't only learn to read, they fall in love with it. We believe building literacy skills is the most cost-effective investment in the fight against poverty & poor educational achievement.
Literacy is the foundation for all learning & for future opportunities; the ability to read is the building block for learning and ensures children get the most out of their schooling. It enables access to health, education, employment and it strengthens democracy & civic engagement. Literacy directly tackles unemployment by providing skills. Central to a thriving economy is a literate, educated & skilled workforce. South Africa's GDP would be est. 25-30% higher if the whole country was literate
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).