Kayleigh Pereira
“YOU are so beautiful, and so smart,” Desmond Tutu assured the children from a Joe Slovo crèche he was reading stories to yesterday.
The reading session, which was held in front of a brightly-painted shipment container at the Waterfront Clock Precinct, aimed to raise awareness of the importance of investing in a solid educational foundation for children.
Tutu, along with his daughter Mpho Tutu, engaged with the children as he handed out Kit Kat chocolates and read them a story that encouraged tolerance among people of different cultures and races.
Among the organisations involved was Breadline Africa, who temporarily donated the renovated container to the event, as they attempt to improve the learning conditions in underprivileged areas such as Khayelitsha.
“Please let us invest in them as much as possible,” he said in an interview. He stressed his view on the importance of reading skills during a child’s learning process in order to make it more “endurable”.
“I know there are heroes and heroines among our children. They are all in the making,” he wrote on the Wall of Hope, a board that showed the support of those involved in the reading session.
Tutu said he believes the skill of reading helps people engage with their imaginations to “rise above” poverty.