FunDza Literacy Trust aims to support literacy in South Africa by providing exciting local stories that teens and young adults want to read. Its main programme is its library on a cellphone: it has a mobi site that is also available on Mxit.
Every week a new story is launched, with a new chapter appearing each day. The stories are commissioned from professional Southern African writers such as Jenny Robson, Sifiso Mzobe, and Lauri Kibutsile, to name a few. The stories remain available to readers, along with full-length books, articles, and stories also on the site. Readers are encouraged to comment on the stories to increase participation and engagement. Every day between 6 000 and 12 000 readers visit the site, with over 50 000 unique visitors monthly.
The ‘FunDza Fanz’ section on the site is a platform for readers to showcase their own work. Readers send in their poems and stories that are then published on the site. There are currently hundreds of stories and poems from readers around the country. This is also how FunDza identities emerging writers to feed its own story needs! FunDza also runs various writing workshops in Cape Town.
Through its ‘Popularising Reading’ programme, FunDza distributes Cover2Cover’s high interest teen novels to schools and youth NGOs and the beneficiaries work with FunDza to monitor the use and response to the books. So far FunDza has sent out more than 13 000 books to over 200 organisations nationwide.
FunDza is led by Mignon Hardie, assisted by Nicci Giles, Zimkitha Mlanzeli, Ros Haden, Dorothy Dyer and Phoebe Sibomana.
FunDza would welcome donations in the form of typing, administrative support, and would also welcome interactions with people involved in under-resourced schools who could spread the message of its work.
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Web: www.fundza.co.za
Access our mobi site: http://fundza.mobi
