With World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) on 1 February 2023, the City of Cape Town’s libraries will use the platform to ensure children who are deaf enjoy the magic of the stories being read.
WRAD was founded by LIT World in 2010 as a celebration of reading aloud, community literacy and the importance of sharing stories.
On a local level, reading campaign, Nal'ibali are the drivers of the day and each year they set a national target.
This year the goal is for all participants, including parents and caregivers, to read to at least three million children.
The City's Library and Information Services (LIS) is one of the key partners in this initiative and 102 City Libraries, in partnership with Nal'ibali, have taken up the challenge and pledged to read out loud to a total of just over 8 900 children.
'One of our libraries' key aims is to develop a culture of reading. LIS will contribute to the achievement of this goal by encouraging all libraries to pledge and implement this objective. This year, our facilities are taking it a step further.
'We often take our hearing for granted and cannot imagine not being able to hear a story. Being excluded from the joy of hearing the spoken word is a challenge for our deaf children and this year our libraries will aim to change this by including them, as well as other children with special needs,' said Councillor Patricia van der Ross, Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health.
Several libraries have committed to doing their part and will connect with special needs schools in their community.
LIS will launch WRAD at the Mary Kihn School for Partially Hearing Children in Observatory.
The guest speaker will be Zoliswa Flekisi, a deaf Cape Town based South African Sign Language poet, storyteller, and teacher and the winner of the Western Cape Cultural Awards for 2022.
Ms. Flekisi, who works for the deaf non-profit organisation Sign Language Education & Development (SLED), will show SLED's South African Sign Language version of the Nal'ibali WRAD story for this year 'Every day's a story!' and then do activities with the deaf learners.
Other schools for the deaf in Cape Town can access the story in South African Sign Language and English on the Nal'ibali website at https://nalibali.org/
'We especially encourage families to take up the challenge to share stories on the day along with the many teachers, librarians, authors and organisations. We often highlight the many benefits of reading to children, of which the shared enjoyment of the adventures found in books is just one,' said Councillor Van der Ross.
Visit the City OPAC ( City of Cape Town) to see which books City librarians recommend reading on the day.
City libraries offer story telling sessions with librarians going out to areas where young children are not able to visit the library on their own.
For a list of the activities at City libraries, please enquire at your library, or go to: https://bit.ly/3kG6EhO.
Source: City Of Cape Town