Family Literacy Groups

These groups meet twice a week to improve language and literacy skills, and to discuss a range of issues relating to their development and well being. The average length of attendance is 3.5 years. To provide opportunities for the group members to use their literacy skills, the following activities have been initiated:

Community Notice Boards

These provide an opportunity for group members to display their literacy skills and also share information gained from the topics covered in the sessions with their wider communities. One group member is responsible for organising the notice board and encouraging others to contribute to the displays

Articles

Members of staff frequently send articles of interest to the local newspaper the  “Mountain Echo”.

THE ARTS and CHILDCARE CENTRES 

Everyone benefits when childcare centres include children with special needs. 

The Family Literacy Project had the opportunity to attend an excellent training by TREE on INCLUSIVE ECD EDUCATION through the ARTS.    

We were taught that art includes painting, coloring, modeling, drawing cutting pasting, collage, as well as drama, music and dance.  All forms of creative art can be developmental aids for children and should be an essential part of the childcare curriculum.  

It’s vital to include different types of learning when teaching children. Each child has his own learning style, and we must be very thoughtful when we plan learning sessions. Some children tend to focus on facts, data, and algorithms, while others are more comfortable with theories and mathematical models. Some respond very well to visual forms of information, like pictures, diagrams, and schematics, while others get more from verbal presentations and spoken explanations. Some prefer to learn actively and interactively (action\groups); while others function more introspectively and individually.  

In addition to catering for learning styles, we need to cater for learning challenges. Using art in ECD centres helps us identify children’s learning styles and learning challenges.  

In inclusive education centres we pay attention to children’s disabilities.  For example : 

  • has trouble transferring something learned to a new situation 
  • speaks and uses language like a much younger child 
  • is afraid of trying new things 
  • has difficulty problems solving  

 When working with children who have special needs, childcare providers need to realize that each child and each disability is unique. Children will be made whole and developed to maturity by different forms of art and creativity. 

Everyone benefits when childcare programs include children with special needs. Children who thrive learn to be sensitive to those who struggle. Children with disabilities benefit greatly from being with other children and from receiving consistent care from a caring adult.  In most cases they will end up feeling the same as others and they won’t be left behind in education, creating a need in Society for specialized institutions.  

Let us all motivate for ECD programmes to be Inclusive and very Art-centred. 

Newsletters

This started when group members were asked to write to the FLP as a way to get adults to use their newly developed literacy skills. These letters were printed, followed by a few pages with news and photographs. The newsletter is now professionally laid out. It is very popular as it is filled with news from the different groups, and members eagerly look for their name in print and for photographs of their activities.

Box libraries and book clubs

Each group is given a box of books to use in their literacy sessions and from which to borrow books to take home to read with their families. These box libraries have books in English and Zulu, for adults and children, and include reference books such as dictionaries and atlases. At Stepmore, the facilitator noticed that the group members were discussing books together. This led to the first FLP book club, something that has spread to every group.

Food security and nutrition

Adult groups were introduced to the concept of key-hole and door-size gardens in their literacy groups, and in 2013 built a demonstration garden at each site. This project links with the nutrition component of the IMCI and home visiting programmes and requires group members to use their literacy skills in accessing and recording information. Groups built either a door-size or key hole garden, and one member from each group volunteered to take on overall responsibility for the garden. The aims of this activity were to encourage members to increase the variety of vegetables consumed by their families, to provide training in planting a variety of vegetables over a longer period than usual and enabling elderly people to tend their gardens more comfortably.

Community Libraries

Before FLP sourced the first community library, group members visited their neighbours to see whether they would use a library. The results were overwhelmingly in favour of having a library and, with perfect timing, we were asked by the NGO Biblionef if we would like a container library.

The bright blue container arrived in Stepmore and our first community library was opened in November 2003. Library furniture was provided by the provincial library services, books by Biblionef, Exclusive Books and other donors; group members catalogued the books and set up the library. The library is open to anyone in Stepmore and is run by one of our group members, with support from the facilitator.

We run five libraries and support 2 others in local schools. As part of our reach Out to Read programme we train librarians wherever we can and help supply the school with suitable books.

In 2021 We were part of a research programme with the CASME University of Wits and VVOB to establish whether well run Classroom Libraries increased the number of books read by children. This resulted in very fruitful interactions with schools we had never been able to reach before, and  many requests for further support with the teaching of reading.

Home Visits

The group members’ desire to spread the message of early literacy gave rise to the home visiting scheme. The women take books with them to read to children; they also talk to mothers and grandmothers about their role in the development of their children. From 2004 we included health messages in our literacy sessions based on the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness strategy (IMCI). Members applied these early literacy and IMCI messages in their own homes and then shared what they had learned with their neighbours. They also played with the very young children in these households. In this way, the family literacy message was spread to people who were not attending FLP sessions.

In 2010 we undertook a two-year pilot focusing on 0-4 year olds, as these babies and toddlers are often not engaged in activities that provide the stimulation that they need to develop language and skills for early literacy. After an evaluation of the programme at the end of 2012, we refined the materials into what is now our Khulisa Abantwana home visiting programme which is being used with FLP groups and also in the government funded Community Works Programme (CWP). In 2013 we trained 175 CWP workers who each visited six homes in their own village, speaking to primary caregivers about stimulation, safety and good nutrition for very young children, and also playing with and reading to the children. The plan is to expand to new villages in the district.  We are constantly working on new materials to extend the information that home visitors can share with the households. For example the ‘gogos’ love to be able to teach toddlers the letter sounds and we have had a lot of success involving them in some of our Reach Out to Read concepts.

The Family Literacy Network

Once adult literacy group members have been meeting for 7 years, they they may join our Family Literacy Network, which encourages the members to be less reliant on FLP. While they no longer meet for literacy activities with the FLP facilitator, all these groups have chosen to continue to meet once a week to engage in small income generating projects. Some of the groups make craft items like rattles that are used in the project. The groups also run their own savings clubs based on the Save Act model. The FLP facilitator continues to support them to do home visits. In these was the Network encourages members to use their new found literacy skills to improve their lives.

Reading Clubs

For over 10 years we have worked with foundation phase children who meet once a week to listen to stories, read books in their home language, draw, write, and generally have fun while learning. From 2012 we aligned with the Nal’ibali reading for pleasure campaign because our approach and aims are much the same. We currently have 20 reading clubs for foundation phase children in 14 villages in the district. We also have a teen group participating in research for the Nal’ibali campaign. Our Literacy Coordinator, Phumy Zikode, writes learning units for our facilitators, based on ideas and activities in the Nal’ibali supplements which are published by Avusa Media. The children love making their own books from the supplements, they compose their own songs showcasing their reading clubs, they write and draw, and participate in many different types of reading and storytelling.

Bursaries & the Provision of Resources

 

Vukuzakhe Projects has for years provided bursaries to deserving students and learners. In 2011/12 an amount of R218 000 was shared amongst 11 students and learners to enable them to enrol in University courses and in primary school. In 2014 bursaries were awarded to 1 student to attend Rhodes University, two students to attend FET college, and for six learners to attend primary school in Underberg and Himeville.

The project also distributes stationery, books and toys, donated by the Generation Joy programme of Seattle, to schools and families in the district. Every year the project distributes between 40 and 50 bicycles to children who participate in a literacy group in Himeville and Underberg on condition that they have not previously received a bicycle, their school results place them high in their class, and they regularly attend literacy sessions.