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Help2read makes reading fun. We help children love books. We recruit and train English speakers in paired reading techniques. Our trained volunteers help the same child twice a week for one year, so children get priceless, long term, one-on-one care and support. We give each volunteer a box full of every type of book, from African Tales to Fairy tales, sticker books to pop-up books, fiction to non fiction, science books to poetry, puzzles, jokes and games too and children can choose to spend the half hour however they like. Children quickly find a book they love and learn to love reading.
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Many South African children have parents who can’t read or write English and who, therefore, can’t read to them. Yet, without this, kids tend to fall behind their peers, losing confidence and self esteem. With the loss of confidence comes the loss of pleasure. Kids who don’t feel confident about their reading simply don’t like reading or books. For many of those children, reading has only ever been torture and humiliation. Those that don’t read outside of school have only ever had the school’s books imposed on them, and those books may not interest them. They’ve never had the opportunity to choose what interests them and to explore that.
Volunteer Reading Help (VRH) has changed that in the United Kingdom and help2read is changing it in South Africa, by turning reading into play. The Foundation helps children aged 5-12 who find reading difficult.
We recruit and train volunteers from the local community to help children read and we give them a box full of fabulous books and games to play with. Sessions are entirely child led, so children can only enjoy themselves. Very quickly, children look forward to reading, instead of dreading it.
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- Muizenberg Junior School (MJS)started the Help2read programme in Muizenberg and our second programme started at Zerilda Park Primary School in Lavender Hill
- Term 1-3: 22 children helped at Muizenberg Junior School
- Term 2-3: 30 children helped at Zerilda Park Primary School, Lavender Hill
- Term 3: Synergy with I to I International Volunteer organisation begins: I to I volunteers start to help2read
- Synergy with Ikamva Labantu’s Development Through Play programme
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- We recruit and train volunteers in paired reading techniques. Our trained volunteers help the same child twice a week for one year, so children get priceless, long term, one-on-one care and support
- Volunteers are interviewed, trained and undergo criminal background checks to ensure the utmost level of child protection and help2read provides free monthly training sessions for volunteers on the last Wednesday and Thursday of each month. Volunteers are then placed with a child or children if they chose to help several children read, pre-selected by the school’s head teacher. They sit in the library, or a quiet place outside of the classroom and read or play with that same child for half an hour, twice a week, for the entire school year. Volunteers don’t replace good teaching, they add to it, playing the role of literate adult in the child’s life with time and attention just for them
- We give each volunteer a box full of every type of book, from African Tales to Fairy tales, sticker books to pop-up books, poetry, puzzles, jokes and games too and children can choose to spend the half hour however they like. Children quickly find a book they love and learn to love reading
- We currently help 10 disadvantaged children at Muizenberg Junior School and our numbers grow each term. help2read has been at Zerilda Park in Lavender Hill and in schools and pre-schools in a number of townships this year
- We’re always looking for schools that want our help. In time, we want to be in every school in South Africa that wants help2read, but for that we’ll need additional funds
- Help2read are in 6 formal pre-schools and schools, namely Imizamo YehtuKraaifontein, Intshinga, Gugulethou, Riebeekstraat, Bellville, Binethamba, Siyasingisa, Thembani, Langa, Yomelala and Khayelitsha
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Western Cape
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- Part of the Moss Educational Foundation with Ikamva Labantu's Development through play programme 1 to 1 volunteer services
- Organisations Family focus - Foundation for community work South African support from Volunteer reading help United Kingdom
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- help2read make reading fun by combining books and games and providing books different to those seen at school. Kids stop seeing reading as a chore and start to see reading as fun
- We help children love books! Because sessions are child led, kids soon find a book they love and learn to love books and reading
- To increase children's confidence - Volunteers are trained to encourage and support all efforts, not to criticise, so kids confidence quickly increases and this has a positive ripple effect across all fields of study
- Building bridges with books: Forging better inter-racial, inter-cultural and inter-class relations Volunteering is a luxury only the relatively privileged can afford and many of the children selected at Muizenberg Junior School and Zerilda Park Junior School come from disadvantaged backgrounds, so our volunteers don’t just help children love books, they also forge positive inter-racial, inter-cultural and inter-class relations at a grass roots level
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Training sessions are the last Wednesday and Thursday of each month at Muizenberg High School.
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