When I was young, I was living in Inanda Township with my then very young parents, who at the time were both balancing being tertiary students and raising a young girl in an informal settlement as well as making some form of living.

There is a tradition that my father started. Every night right about 7pm he would pull out this blue book full of Zulu short stories. The dishes had been washed, and the kitchen/lounge – my bedroom by night – was being readied for sleep. The sleeping sponge out, my soul rested, and my dad would read the stories. While I cannot remember much of the stories, I remember what those moments meant for me as a child and what the time spent with my parents meant. I remember that I felt cared for and delighted in; it felt as though some of the stories were being crafted by me and my dad together. This moment was pure joy, and it made me want to make my parents proud (it made me want to read like Dad). The world was safe for me to dream, aspire and learn.

I often share stories of my upbringing and the role of access to literature and parents who could socialise me into a love of knowledge and education, aka books, despite the rough socio-economic circumstances, as a way to illustrate firstly, the power of access and, secondly how when nurtured and scaffolded, access to knowledge, books and stories can and truly does empower individuals to overcome poverty.

Why this matters

Nearly 43% of South African households with children ages zero to six do not have a single children’s book, and only 4% of four-year-olds who attend preschool have more than 10 books. In 2023, the national reading barometer - a national reading survey -  found that a significant proportion (65%) of households surveyed with children of even up to the age of 10 reported not having a single picture books; and very few adults (31%) reporting their oldest child having owned a book of their own at the age of five (National Reading Survey 2023).

In sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNICEF, the situation is even more dire: in nine countries that collect data on book ownership, only 2% of children under age five have at least three children’s books at home. A few years ago, in a 2023 study, UNICEF estimated that only 32% of parents of children aged 0-6 read or share books with them (UNICEF 2023).

From Book Dash’s own partner feedback over the past 11 years, gathered from a network +200 distribution partner organisation, reaching over a million and half children, we’ve come to understand that (a) for most children, a Book Dash book is the first book they have ever owned; (b) access to home language stories inspires a whole household’s engagement with reading; and (c) sustained access to the Book Dash storybooks turns the books into a shared household resource, shared between both younger and older children in the household. Our observations encourage the work we do, and echo the importance of sustaining the provisioning here at home and enabling it in other parts of the continent.

We know from all the evidence and research published both locally and internationally that books are critical to developing young children’s language, cognitive and socio-emotional skills. Last year evidence from the Thrive by Five Index showed that four-year-olds with more than 10 books at home have significantly better literacy, numeracy, motor and cognitive skills than their bookless peers. Early literacy forms the foundation for learning and education attainment later on in a child’s life. By this I mean the ability to read for meaning and understanding in grades 3, 4 and 5 is developed in the phases of 0-5 years.

The more children have access to books, are read to and are reading themselves, the more the joy of reading grows. They begin to learn language, words and the association of images and phrases. The practice of reading together as a family grounds children emotionally, improving parent-child bonding and creating safe environments ripe for learning.

We’ve also learnt that our creative volunteers’ beautiful stories serve more than the children who receive them. Together, we are in fact also enabling a vast ecosystem of early childhood development NGOs, ECECs, education advocates, teachers, practitioners and health actors who have built incredible programmes which support children, their families and communities – improving literacy, their quality of life and wellbeing. The sustained access has sparked creativity in how books are used, shared and embedded across organisations’ service offerings.

For this reason, we have decided to open up our Annual Print Run to other organisations that wish to take advantage of the even more affordable access to books. Enabling them to spread the joy of reading and getting more books into more children’s hands this year… Just imagine, with your partnership and contributions, in a few years from now, there will be millions of others out there reminiscing about how a simple childhood bedtime story tradition with their caregiver transformed their whole existence and outcome in life.

It is my pleasure to extend an invitation to your organisation to join our 2026 Annual Print Run!! Click here to learn more about the Annual Print Run, who should join and the benefits.