Since inception more than 3,500 aspirant amateur writers have had their writing work published in the Fanz section of fundza.mobi.

One of these is Petronela Kaunda – writing under the pseudonym Petronela Six Shisaku – who has come to South Africa from Malawi and who now lives in Capricorn, a township in Cape Town.

Petronela came into contact with FunDza around three years ago, and – as a budding poet and avid reader with aspirations of becoming a renowned author – she fell in love with FunDza, and with being published on the platform too.

This is Petronela’s story…

I was about 17 turning 18 years at the time, I was going through my mother’s phone and among the apps that were there I found FreeBasics. While on FreeBasics I came across FunDza and I clicked on the first book I saw. It was Jealous in Jozi by Dorothy Dyer and Ros Haden! While on the site I found a section called ‘Fanz writing’ and I clicked and read further.

I will never forget how much content was on the site, there was so much to choose from. After reading Jealous in Jozi, I went to my school’s library and found each and every book that I saw there on fundza.mobi and I was over the moon with excitement. This got me thinking that, if other people can do this then so can I.

I then started my own poems and sent them to FunDza for publishing using my gmail account on my mother’s phone. From time to time I would share my poems with my mother before I send them for publishing so that she could guide me.

I was so excited when my poems were published. Before writing for FunDza, I used to doubt myself and I was not confident, having my work published gave me a confidence boost. One of my poems is published in one of FunDza’s funzines and I am so proud of myself!

We also spoke to Petronela’s mother. She could not hide the emotion and excitement in her voice!

“Writing for your library has changed my daughter’s life. I do not know how I could thank you,” she says. “You know – when you are a foreigner in South Africa – sometimes it is not easy. My child is developing her English and I can see she is enjoying this FunDza. Thank you so much!”

Petronela’s poem “Dear Mom” is published on one of our soon-to-be-released funzines, entitled Pedal Forward and much much more. She’ll be getting a copy to keep when they are back from the press.

Petronela is just one young person who has fallen in love with reading for pleasure and writing for expression through fundza.mobi. She aspires to be a foundation phase teacher and believes that the cornerstone of a bright future is that of taking up reading and writing as enjoyable pursuits. We’re so happy she found fundza.mobi and that she is sharing her love of words with others too.

“I believe that if other people can do it, so can I too. I love FunDza and I wish they could come to my school because there are intelligent kids there,” Petronela said.

We are happy to have Petronela as part of our Fanz writers and we believe that more is still to come from this gifted young person.