“Having as few as 20 books in the home has a significant impact on propelling a child to a higher level of education, and the more books you add, the greater the benefit.” (Evans, 2010)

The project was implemented in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, in highly under-resourced contexts. Each intervention took place over 8 months, using early learning centres as the primary touchpoint with children. There were 3 cohorts of children over the 3 years of implementation (2021 – 2023) reaching around 3,000 children in total.

The first five years of life are the most significant for brain development. This is the time when the foundations for language and life are laid. For children to thrive later in school and in life, they need to be surrounded by stimulating environments, that are filled with opportunities to play and interact. Reading, telling and listening to books and stories is one of the best ways to stimulate a young child’s development.

Yizani Sifunde is designed as a multi-pronged model for boosting early learning outcomes.

• A key component involves enhancing children’s learning environments with an abundance of books: at home and in cenres of learning.
• Hundreds of thousands of Book Dash books in children’s home languages were distributed to children. The majority of these books are for children to take home and own. 
• Training and support was also provided for teachers at 100+ ECD centres, to use Wordworks’ well-renowned early literacy programme.  Practical training and materials were also offered to parents and caregivers through workshops.
• Nal’ibali trained members of the community to run reading clubs, and hosted media campaigns to boost the profile of books and reading with children. 

The project was originally funded by Community Liberty Trust.