A true community hero, Tsepiso Nzayo is working hard to bring the magic of stories and reading to life in the lives and homes of Grahamstown families.
A true community hero, Tsepiso Nzayo is working hard to bring the magic of stories and reading to life in the lives and homes of Grahamstown families.
Through national reading-for-enjoyment campaign, Nal’ibali, Nzayo is setting up and supporting reading clubs as a Nal’ibali Cluster Mentor.
Committed to sharing the potential that stories can spark in children, he’s working hard on setting up a further four reading clubs in areas outside Grahamstown.
“I see the positive power that reading and sharing stories can have – it is what lifted me out of my own challenging circumstance and allowed me to become the determined, hard-working person I am today,” he said.
“I have already seen these changes in our communities and in the children who are reading. The confidence it brings out in them as they deepen their thinking, stretch their imaginations and grow their memories and vocabularies,” Nzayo said.
Nal’ibali-supported reading clubs provide relaxed, safe environments for children to read, tell stories and talk about what they are reading with children of all ages.
The group members also have fun writing, singing songs and playing games related to reading and writing, because, Nzayo says, as children experience stories and books, they grow to love them and become better at reading and writing.
It is important that the reading clubs Nzayo helps set up are sustainable and make use of existing resources and volunteers in the community, he says. He aims to inspire those around him because anyone, old or young, at all levels of reading and in any language can get involved.
Now a role model for many young children to read for enjoyment, Nzayo was himself first inspired to read after hearing well-known South African storyteller, Gcina Mhlope, on the radio.
He encourages all South Africans to tell stories to their children, be it at bedtime or in the car or taxi on the way to school. Nzayo advises care givers to create spaces that are friendly, yet educational when trying to engage children with stories.
Nzayo received specialised training from the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA), co-driver of the Nal’ibali campaign, which has 20 years experience in community reading clubs and early literacy development.
For those who want to get reading or set up their own reading clubs, they can visit the nal’ibali website: www.nalibali.org; mobisite:www.nalibali.mobi; Facebook page: www.facebook.com/nalibaliSA; or Twitter feed: @nalibaliSA.
Nzayo can also be contacted on: Tsepiso.praesa@gmail.com
