With statistics revealing that 60% of South African households don’t have a single book, Nal’ibali joined forces with Global Citizen to curb this trend with the launch of a global online literacy campaign.
The two recently launched the #TurnThePage campaign, which aims to promote a culture of reading among young people, at Mall of Africa in Midrand on Wednesday 24 July.
The organisations, together with Exclusive Books, shared the platform with Letshego Zulu, who launched her book, ‘I Choose to Live: Life after Losing Gugu’ on the same day. Letshego is the wife of racing driver Gugu Zulu, who lost his life three years ago, when he tried to summit Kilimanjaro.
A pop-up library was also erected at the mall's the centre court which, together with Exclusive Books, will be the main book donation hub for the public.
Exclusive Books will be selling children’s books for R35 and guests at the launch were invited to buy a book and donate it to the pop-up library.
The books will then be donated to organisations that promote a culture of reading in South Africa.
The #TurnThePage campaign, running between 24 July and 7 September, and book donation drive will culminate into the final and largest activation on 7 September at Mall of Africa over the weekend of World Literacy Day which is on 8 September 2019.
The event will include reading corners, live readings, author and child-author interactions, book donation “hubs”, and book signings.
Some of the books will be donated to Nal’ibali’s Story Power in Motion Programme, which consists of four mobile libraries operating in in select townships in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape and Gauteng.
The public is welcome to buy books, or donate used books in a good condition and drop them at the pop-up library until 7 September at the mall.
If you are in Cape Town, you can drop off your donation at the Nal’ibali Cape Town office, in the Waverly Business Park in Mowbray.
Nal’ibali is a reading-for-enjoyment campaign while Global Citizen is an international online community of people who want to learn about, and action the world’s greatest challenges.
Please visit www.globalcitizen.org for more details about the campaign’s events and offline activities.
For more information about the Nal’ibali campaign, or to access children’s stories in a range of South African languages, visit www.nalibali.org. Join the FUNda Sonke loyalty programme at www.nalibali.mobi . You can also find Nal’ibali on Facebook and Twitter: nalibaliSA.