By NOMVELO MASANGO and NOKUTHULA SIBIYA
The Kingswood branch of the Intsomi programme has officially been launched. Hosted in the housekeeping staff room of Kingswood College, the event was facilitated by Intsomi coordinator, Cathy Gush.
The Intsomi programme is an initiative that was started at Rhodes University in 2015. It was created to help Rhodes University Grade 1-5 staff members become agents in the development of their children’s reading and learning skills. Intsomi has been providing reading books and educational material, as well as hosting workshops to assist parents with their children’s learning outside of the classroom.
Due to the success of the programme, Gush seized the opportunity to replicate the programme with the Grade 1-5 staff members at Kingswood College, as part of their Community Engagement programme.
The event, which was attended by over 20 staff members began with a welcome from Gush who gave a brief history of the programme. She then gave a tour of the Intsomi library, which consists of fiction and non-fiction books in English and isiXhosa. The books were donated to the programme through funding from the Nal’ithuba Trust.
The parents were then taken through the book loaning process by Kingswood College library assistant Fundiswa Marali. The parents were then presented with two books from Book Dash, a non-profit organisation which provides uniquely African storybooks in all 11 official languages. The event ended with the handing over of the specially designed shweshwe book bags and refreshments for all of the parents.
In handing over the book bags, Dr Colleen Vassiliou head of Kingswood College said, “The greatest gift you can give to your child is to read to them.”
For more information on the programme and to find out how you can donate,
contact Cathy Gush on 074 885 9206.
