Read SA Gaining Momentum
The first quarter of the year started well for Read SA. In a coup for the campaign, we partnered up with Centre for Creative Arts to give more value to Time of the Writer Festival.
Those who have been part of Time of the Writer since its inception will know what a fantastic literary event it is. In addition to the panel discussions that happen every evening during the course of the week, writers get to visit schools and Durban Westville Prison to talk about their art. In the past, these visits have consisted of schools receiving biographies of the visiting writer and an excerpt of their work to familiarise themselves with it. This year through Read SA’s partnership, we added value to an already fun and enriching experience for the students.
Writers arrived at each of the schools they visited with a box of books to give to the library of the school being visited. Through this, Read SA and Centre for Creative Arts were able to distribute books worth R50,000 in Durban high schools.
As the mission of the campaign is to spread the love of reading through reading South Africa and Africa, we also took four children’s writers to donate books and conduct writing workshops with students from five primary schools in Pietemaritzburg. Zambian writer Ellen Banda-Aaku, Congolese writer Mukanda Mulemfo, and Zimbabwean writer Ivor Hartmann took part in this leg of the campaign.
What was gratifying for Read SA was how effortless the logistics of the visit were as the Pietermaritzburg community, led by English teacher Amisha Aiyer of Orient Heights Primary School, rolled up their sleeves and ensured everything was smooth sailing. Not only did they arrange transport from and to King Shaka Airport for the writers, one of the parents, aware that the campaign has limited funding so far, even paid for accommodation for one of the writers.
As is clear from this, Read SA is gaining momentum and we look forward to more work in different provinces.
All being well, we hope to have visited schools and communities in all nine provinces of the country by the end of the year, donating books and getting people to read and read South Africa.
