The David Rattray Foundation schools in rural KZN are among the beneficiaries of FunDza’s ‘Popularising Reading Programme.’
‘From Boys to Men’ is the most recent book in the Harmony High Series. Copies were delivered to the Rorke’s Drift Secondary School a few months ago. ‘From Boys to Men’ (a collaboration between Sonke Gender Justice Network and Cover2Cover Books) explores issues of gender-based violence and masculinity in an accessible and moving way, and also touches on the topic of male medical circumcision as a way to prevent the spread of HIV and Aids.
FunDza received feedback from the principal of the school that a reading club has been formed by the learners and that the members propose to hold a symposium on ‘From Boys to Men’
Details of their purpose follow:
- To promote reading
- To draw important lessons from the story.
- To share own personal experiences related to the issues or events contained in the story.
- To afford learners to mature vicariously by engaging in the vigorous deliberations on contemporary issues /challenges facing the Youth of today.
A questionnaire has been designed to guide and prepare learners to effectively participate in the discussions.
Says co-author Dorothy Dyer: “A rural KZN school has formed a FunDza reading club, and is discussing ‘From boys to men’, a book I co-wrote with Londi Gamedze. I don’t think I will ever get used to that feeling when I hear that a story I wrote has touched readers, and made them think.”
FunDza is delighted to see that it is not only developing a love of reading among teens and young adults, but that it is beginning to see how fiction drives positive social change.