FunDza had the opportunity to participate once again in Cell C’s Take a Girl Child to Work Day. It was a great success last year, so naturally we decided to repeat the exercise. We invited learners from one of our beneficiary schools, Matthew Goniwe Memorial High, to come and share the day with us.

The initial idea was to invite five girls, but Xoliswa, the school’s librarian was so excited by the project that she ended inviting six girls.

Prior to the event, there were a couple of hiccups. They ranged from car issues to Cell C running out of promo packs. However, FunDza staff members pulled together as a great team to overcome the challenges.

The six girls – neatly dressed in their school uniforms – were so excited to spend the day with us. When they arrived, everyone had the chance to introduce themselves to them – talking about their role in the organisation and what they concentrate on doing.

Some of the girls expressed their love for writing but were unsure of platforms to showcase their writing. Zimkhitha, our Fanz editor the girls to send through some their writing.

The girls were given the following tasks to do of which they executed very well;

• Capturing of workshop feedback forms
• Typing poetry
• Writing up of comments by fans on colourful paper to place on the FunDza office walls
• Receiving brief training on the ordering of books for the Popularising Reading programme

The girls really enjoyed the tasks because they offered to do volunteering work for FunDza in the near future.

Over lunch we had great informal discussions about the importance of literacy and reading. The girls asked questions every now and again, demonstrating interest from their side.

Cell C’s Take a Girl Child to Work Day certificates and goodie bags were given to the girls as a token of appreciation for their participation. Everyone, from the girls, librarian and FunDza staff really enjoyed the day. It was a very successful event for a worthy cause.