As a child, Sindeka Mandoyi loved reading, yet she didn’t own a single book until she was 22.
“Where we grew up, books were something that’s not attainable,” she says. “I wanted to change the cycle.”
Today, she’s doing exactly that. As a Book Dash writer, Mandoyi has written two children’s books – A Trip to the Tap and The Window Seat. As the founder of the Chosi-Chosi Book Club in Philippi, Cape Town, she has built young readers’ skills and sense of belonging and placed hundreds of books into local children’s hands.
Mandoyi started the club in 2019 after leaving an unfulfilling retail job. Today she meets weekly with about 35 children, mostly in Grades 1-3, with older kids joining in too. To get the club off the ground, she reached out to literacy organisations, completed an online course on how to teach reading, and sourced book donations.
But finding the right books was difficult: quality varied, and most were in English, forcing her to translate into isiXhosa on the spot. When Mandoyi saw a Book Dash call for new writers, she seized the chance to create the books she wished she’d had.
Her first title, A Trip to the Tap, reflects everyday life in an informal settlement. “I wanted them to see themselves in a book,” she says. “When I explained to them that the character lives in the same area as they do, they giggled.”
Although she writes professionally for Glamour SA magazine, writing for children was a new challenge. “You would think it’s very small, but every word counts – it has to trigger something, an emotion,” she says. She also came to appreciate the collaborative process: “Without an editor, without the illustrator, without the designer, nothing can come into place.”
In 2024, Mandoyi applied to become a Book Dash distribution partner. Receiving her first batch of books – many in both English and isiXhosa – was “life changing”. For the first time, she could give children books to take home and keep.
“It cuts down the struggle of financing books out of my own pocket,” she says. “It’s about ownership. Now they have something to take care of.”
The supply was generous enough to reach children beyond the club, including preschoolers. The response was immediate. “A week after the distribution, I arrived to a full class of toddlers with their books in hand,” she says. “They looked so determined to be part of the book club, ready to read and learn.”
At Book Dash’s encouragement, Mandoyi applied for a grant from ChangeX, a platform that connects local changemakers to proven ideas and funding, to print and donate books for 1,000 more children in Philippi.
The ripple effect has been profound. “When it transforms the whole neighbourhood – children who stop you on every corner asking for more books to share with their friends – that is humbling.”
Her motivation remains deeply personal. “Reading gives you endless possibilities. You get to dream. You get to hope. You get to see things you thought you could never see,” she says. “I want every child to see that there’s more outside of Philippi.
“I do this for the young me who wanted a book club in my neighbourhood,” she adds.
Mandoyi is proud to be part of a larger community of creatives and literacy activists. “Book Dash is building community,” she says. “They’re building a family. Children are meant to be raised by communities.”
