2014 marks the 20th anniversary of our country’s young democracy. FunDza’s ‘Rights’ story project celebrates this achievement and offers readers a chance to reflect on the work that must still be done to build a fair, just and equitable South Africa.
FunDza works towards a vision of an educated, engaged and empowered citizenry. Its focus is on improving the literacy levels and ultimately the academic performance of young people, specifically youth aged 13 to 25 years from under-resourced communities. It does this by creating and disseminating local, exciting stories that get young people wanting to read.
One of the ways in which FunDza is growing a community of readers is through leveraging the reach of cellphones. Almost everyone in South Africa has access to a cellphone and yet only 8% of schools have libraries. FunDza has created a ‘library on a phone’ and currently reaches around 50,000 unique readers each month, with an average visit duration of 14 minutes. Each week FunDza publishes a specially commissioned short story. A chapter is released daily, making reading a habit. Each story is archived in FunDza’s growing library for readers to access at any point in the future. In the book-publishing world, a bestseller in South Africa is considered to be a book that sells more than 3,000 copies. FunDza short stories are read by more than this number in just a one-month period.
The ‘Rights’ story project is focused on the rights enshrined in South Africa’s Bill of Rights. In the last week of each month of 2014, FunDza will run a fictional short story that highlights one of the ‘rights’ and publish this on its mobi network. Readers will be encouraged to engage with the story through discussion questions at the end of each chapter. FunDza receives hundreds of comments as young people share their ideas about the published stories allowing for discussion and values clarification.
Says Managing Trustee, Mignon Hardie: “Whilst FunDza’s programmes intend at the very heart to ignite a passion for reading and writing, we also recognise the power of stories to shift attitudes, challenge beliefs and ultimately impact on behaviour. For SA to develop an active citizenry it needs not only to be literate but also to be empowered with and by knowledge. “
Each story will also be translated into one of SA’s other official languages. FunDza believes not only in promoting reading in English but also in providing content in the various home languages as a means of growing a culture of reading and of widening the potential reading pool of South Africans. There is little fictional reading material in SA’s indigenous languages and this lack creates an additional barrier to improving literacy and getting young people to identify themselves as readers.
The fictional stories will also provides links to information about SA’s Bill of Rights, the Constitution and general information about the law. This will be written in plain language English to provide young readers with helpful and educational resources that help boost their constitutional literacy skills. This information is housed on FunDza’s mobi network in the ‘Resources’ section.
FunDza will further promote and distribute the stories through competitions and printed anthologies to extend the reach as far as possible.
The first story has begun. It is about the right to ‘Freedom and Security’:
… Mihlali’s dream has come true. She has left the farm where she grew up, and where she was in danger every day to pursue her dream of a new life at a new school. But she discovers that her past has followed her and she might still have nowhere to hide…
You can read ‘Nowhere to hide’ or, in isiZulu, ‘Ayikho Indawo Yokubaleka’ at www.fundza.mobi or add FunDza as a contact on Mxit.
A reader comments “It breaks my heart to read something like this. To someone it like taking them back where they have been. Mihlali must have faith that someone will believe her. She must go to the police immediately after the bastard is done. And for the one on the farm, Senazo will be the witness. I hate guys who take advantage.”