PRESS RELEASE
If books and stories were life-giving goods (and they certainly feed the soul) then the FunDza Literacy Trust would be a first-responder. Its fundza.mobi ‘library on a phone’ is responsive, agile and always available 24/7/365. Moreover, it not only provides topical information and advice in these challenging times, but escapism from one’s troubles too.
The FunDza Literacy Trust’s online platform – fundza.mobi – is accessible to anyone with a device connected to the internet. And, it is ‘datafree’ to users via the Moya Messenger platform.
Fundza.mobi is packed with exciting and relevant content for South African teens and young adults who have little access to leisure reading material. This means that it is well-placed to support our country’s youth in this period of lockdown where the only place we can meet is virtual.
In response to Covid-19 and the lockdown, FunDza has been compiling helpful stories, articles and resources relevant to our youth readership.
There’s a free and open online course called ‘All about the Corona virus’ that provides information on background to the virus, how it manifests, how to recognise fact from fake news, and how to cope with physical isolation.
There are a range of articles written by various writers on their reflections on the lockdown. Malaika wa Azania wrote a powerful piece titled “To the children stuck at home with their abusers”. This describes how she used reading as an escape from difficult circumstances in her own past, and how she empathises with children now who are stuck in challenging home environments.
Another, by popular writer Michelle Myeko, explores how the lockdown has exacerbated the deep inequalities in South African society, called “Inequality under the lockdown”.
Reader responses to both these articles show that they have touched a nerve. As one reader commented: “Her story is my story”.
FunDza has also commissioned writers to provide helpful and useful articles on a range of topics related to the lockdown and the virus. For instance, one article “Rights under lockdown” explains to readers their rights and provides a list of helpful numbers to use if readers witness police or army transgressions. There are others explaining how readers can make their own cloth face masks and hand sanitisers, advice from psychologists on dealing with anxiety and loneliness in lockdown, and there is a children’s story about hygiene and hand-washing, amongst numerous others.
In addition, readers can access the Lockdown Live feature here. This contains links to FAQs and helplines. However, its main focus is to give readers at home a set of daily activities – to read a particular story/play/article, to share something on Facebook, to enter into short writing challenges (via our WhatsApp portal) and various other suggestions that give our readers some sort of ‘programme’ for those who would like it. Each day there are three or four new suggestions and links.
So, whether you want to read to escape, learn something new, write about your life and feelings, entertain your family at home, or even find some easy things to do and bake, the fundza.mobi platform has you covered.
Share the resources with young people who can benefit so that in this difficult time they are armed with facts and have access to sound advice and support, and develop their literacy skills at the same time. Most importantly, share the platform so that they get the opportunity to imagine and dream about a life beyond these times of lockdown.
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.
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.
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