Nal’ibali is calling on all South Africans to join them in reading aloud to the children in their lives on World Read Aloud Day (WRAD), which will be celebrated on Wednesday, February 1.
The national reading-for-enjoyment campaign has been providing a free, special story for children to celebrate WRAD for over a decade.
The campaign’s aim for WRAD 2023 is to reach their goal of reading aloud to three million children.
This year’s custom-written story is by well-known children’s author Tumisang Shongwe and is called “Every day’s a story”.
Ben Rycroft, head of communications and content at Nal’ibali said that while this year’s WRAD campaign will focus nationally on encouraging families to pledge to read aloud, there will be a strong community outreach component brought to life by their community projects that have a strong home visit focus.
“As always, this will be a collaborative effort with the Department of Basic Education, the National Education Collaboration Trust and other key partners.
“There are so many benefits to reading aloud to young children and babies and reading a story aloud together,” he said.
Nal’ibali has been invited by LitWorld, an international non-profit which strengthens kids and communities through the power of stories to participate in a worldwide WRAD-a-thon on February 1.
Shongwe, the author will join international award winning authors and reading advocates at 8am to host a series of live interactive read-aloud shows.
The story is available on the Nal’ibali website and is free to download in all 11 official South African languages as well as in Braille.
To ensure that children benefit from the simple power of stories and join in the nationwide celebration, there is a short guide for caregivers on how to share the official WRAD story with young children. The guide is also available on the website in seven official languages.
Visit www.nalibali.org/wrad2023 or WhatsApp WRAD to 060 044 2254 to make your pledge and get the free official story in your language. Share pictures of your read-aloud sessions online use the hash tag #MyWRAD2023.
To participate in the global WRAD-a-thon go to www.litword.org/worldreadalouday or www.scholasticcom/worldreadaloudday.