PRESS RELEASE
In celebration of World Book Day on 23 April, FunDza Literacy Trust, through its fundza.mobi online library for teens and young adults, is highlighting its most popular stories from the last few years.
Every day more than 15,000 readers enjoy FunDza’s content. There are fast-paced, exciting local dramas and romances by some of Southern Africa’s leading authors: Sifiso Mzobe, Fiona Snyckers, Jayne Bauling, Lauri Kubuitsile, and many more.
FunDza has also been the platform for emerging writers who have contributed thousands of poems, stories and articles since FunDza first started its online platform in 2011.
During this lockdown period, FunDza has seen even more readership as young people turn to reading on their phones, as well as doing some of FunDza’s free online courses.
“Reading for pleasure should not be seen just as an extra,” said Mignon Hardie, Director of FunDza. “It is linked to improved academic results in Maths as well as languages. Reading helps us develop understanding of ourselves and the world we live in, as well as providing entertainment in these troubled times.”
As part of the World Book Day celebrations, FunDza is using its online platform to highlight a range of stories and plays. One of these will be ‘The Village Girl’, a play about trafficking contributed by Victoria Ntuli, one of FunDza’s readers, and which was one of the most popular pieces for the whole of 2017, garnering over 1,000 comments and likes.
Another is a dramatic Zulu story ‘Ithunzi Elimnyama’ written by another popular writer Khethiwe Luthuli (with an English translation by Sifiso Mzobe). There will also be some children’s stories and novels featured on the home page of the site.
FunDza is also donating 20,000 copies of its ‘Soul Food’ pamphlet, containing short stories and poems, to go out with food parcels distributed by the National Association of Child Care Workers. “We need food for our bodies,” says Hardie, “And we also need stories for our souls.”
The popularity of FunDza’s stories can be seen on the hundreds of comments that readers leave every day on FunDza’s online fundza.mobi platform.
“Thank you for such inspiring poems and stories. Keep up the good work. Lockdown is nothing when I have your books,” wrote one reader.
“This is one of the best stories I have ever read I was literally attached to my phone the entire time. Big ups to the writer this story changed a part of me,” wrote another.
So if you need a book or story to celebrate World Book Day, find FunDza’s stories for free by visiting fundza.mobi!
About FunDza
FunDza promotes reading and writing to teens and young adults in South Africa. It creates a wide variety of locally-written relevant and exciting content for use in its programmes. Its FunDza Family members receive print reading resources to run reading clubs and lending libraries, while its online FunDza Fanz readers can access popular content through the fundza.mobi platform (accessible via mobile phones, tablets or computers) and can get published as ‘Fanz writers’ too.
Find FunDza in the following places:
1) The fundza.mobi site – https://live.fundza.mobi
2) Download Moya Messenger from Google Play store and ‘Discover’ FunDza in the ‘Read Books’ section.
3) WhatsApp ‘hi’ to FunDza on 0600 54 8676.