JBF Children's Roundtable

Jozi Book Fair organised a Children's Roundtable meeting held on 25 February 2011, held at Khanya College in Johannesburg.

The aim of the Children's Roundtable:

  • To have a discussion with the Jozi Book Fair partner organisations, to discuss ways and means of helping to build and promote a culture of reading and writing amongst the children.

  • To develop strategies and programmes that can be used to encourage children to read and write especially in indigenous languages

  • To inform the participants about JBF children's project plans for 2011 including the launch of Masilo le Masilonyana Drop-in centre

There were about 26 people from different organisations including Ukhozi Stories from Alexandra, Africa One Education, Read Educational Trust, Childline, Molteno, Setsi Sa Mosadi etc

The programme started with a presentation by Bongani Twala of Ukhozi Stories from Alexandra Township near Sandton. He has is running a children's programme were he teaches the children cultural issues and activities, reading and writing, self-defence skills and storytelling, he has also build a relationship with local creches and schools.

Some of the participants highlighted the importance of teaching children to read and write in indigenous languages, that it is also important to reward those children who makes the effort and time to read.

Setsi Sa Mosadi:

Kelebogile one of the trainee of Sesti Sa Mosadi, which is a Women's Advice Centre, made a brief presentation about how the centre will operate, the different activities that will take place at the centre including advisory services, referral services, yoga, film screenings, writing, etc.

Launch of Masilo le Masilonyana:

Jozi Book Fair also informed the participants about the intention to open a children's drop-in corner within the Setsi Sa Mosadi advice centre when it is officially launched on 12 March 2011. The last part of the meeting was a brainstorming session on how and where Jozi Book Fair Children's Project can ask for donations in the form of children's educational toys, books and furniture for the children's corner.

Way forward:

The meeting concluded by emphasizing the importance of have regular meetings with the aim of working on the children's literature programme for 2011.