Sifunda Kunye Literacy Centre
Dedicated student Volunteers with guidance and mentoring of full time staff from Sifunda Kunye run a impactful, successful, educational, caring, fun reading club every Saturday during school terms at St Matthews High School. If you have not yet visit our club, don’t miss out on term 3 Saturday Reading clubs.
We would like to thank the dedicated St Matthews High School volunteers and the Staff members from Sifunda Kunye Educational Project for the uplifting reading clubs during this past term.
A big thank you goes out to Sifunda Kunye for our toilet facilities that was build and added during term 2. Read more about it.
Sifunda Kunye Literacy Project
Literacy advancement is a founding tenet of the Sifunda Kunye Educational Project. Though it started small, the Literacy Project is now a robust portfolio of various programs and truly one of our most valuable endeavors. The Literacy Project began in 2009 as a small Saturday morning book club, conceived by our original project manager and run by student leaders in the President’s Award program at St. Matthew’s High School. Instilling a love of reading and the personal pursuit of knowledge is a crucial aspect to education success no matter where you are. The book club was our first attempt to help foster those traits in our learners. The goal was to get students and leaders together to enjoy reading and learning outside of the classroom.
In the early days of the program, as we explored ways to positively impact literacy, we reached out to two Cape Town-based programs – PRAESA and Nal’ibali. Both support book clubs for learners in poor areas around Cape Town. They also produce isiXhosa and English primary school books to help young learners develop language skills. We were very impressed by their model and we soon invited two PRAESA employees, Xolisa Guzulu and Ntombi Mahobe, to visit the St. Matthew’s book club and train some of the St. Matthew’s students to lead the clubs in storytelling, drama, and English/isiXhosa reading.
The Sifunda Kunye Literacy Center at St. Matthew’s
As the programs have grown, so has the need for a dedicated space and resource center. In August 2015, the Sifunda Kunye Literacy Center opened on campus at St. Matthew’s. The building was an unused classroom block from the old part of campus. In May 2015, Sifunda Kunye launched a large project to refurbish the building, creating a beautiful resource room for all of the Literacy Project’s activities, including the popular Saturday morning book clubs. The entire renovation cost approximately $22,000USD and took three months to complete. Sifunda Kunye Project Manager Zander Hampson led the effort with tremendous results.
The Center now houses a small primary-level reading library filled with isiXhosa and English books, a reading corner, and a larger multi-purpose auditorium space used for drama and music. Students, teachers, and staff now enjoy the space regularly. We continue adding resources and improvements to the building. One of the improvements for which we are currently pursuing funding is the renovation of the toilet block nearest the Literacy Center. Currently the kids and leaders do not have access to any form of indoor plumbing at the center. We hope to have that project funded and completed by the end of 2016.
St Matthew’s Literacy Centre Launch!
Why are Literacy Centers vital in our lifetime?
For young children, the world is filled with wonder. Everywhere they look, there is something new to discover, and each discovery gives rise to new questions. Children use what teachers in Reggio Emilia, Italy, refer to as “one hundred languages” to share their wonder and their questions with us. In addition to the words of their language(s), young children use gestures, manipulation, drawing, sculpting, dance, pretend play, music, and even misbehavior to tell us what they know and what they wonder about. As they get older, spoken and written words become more important. The other “languages” feed into and support emergent literacy. An environment that enhances emergent literacy gives children a sense of trust and assurance even as it excites their wonder and invites them to explore. Whether it is in a home, a school, or a community setting such as a library or play space, an environment that supports emergent literacy is full of possibilities for imagining and opportunities for pretend play. It provides children with not only a wealth of spoken and written words but also many opportunities to engage in reading, writing, singing, and storytelling activities. It is on these convictions that the Sifunda Kunye Literacy Project was founded and now the Literacy Center, which is a space to make all these possibilities a reality!
By: M. Khumalo
