Five staff members representing the Department of Library Services at the University of Pretoria and their library association LIASA’s Marketing and Advocacy Interest Group (MAIG) participated in the global World Read Aloud Day on Thursday 1 February 2018.

The librarians supported both the LitWorld and Nali’bali initiatives by reading to South Africa’s children in support of one of the biggest literacy events on the annual calendar, World Read Aloud Day. They created their own one-on-one read aloud moment by visiting Floralise Pre-Primary School in Sunnyside with six new books. The books were read aloud to the three classes of 3 to 4 year olds, 4 to 5 year olds and 6 year olds. Floralise Pre-Primary School was established in 1993 and provide a safe, fun and exciting learning environment for 3 to 6 year old children.

LitWorld is a nonprofit organization founded by literacy expert Pam Allyn in 2007 which works with a broad coalition of national and international partners to ensure that young people worldwide can experience the joy and transformation of reading, writing, and storytelling. They believe that every child in the world should get to read and write. Nali’bali (isiXhosa for “here’s the story”) is a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign to spark children’s potential through storytelling and reading.

The principal of Floralise Pre-Primary School Marina Cheik thanked the staff in an email expressing her gratitude for the books, refreshments and reading by the staff members: “Thank you so much for your visit today. We really appreciate it. The children were so happy when I read them the new stories from the storybooks you gave us. God bless you.”

As librarians we are proud that we promoted books and reading on this special day - united by the power of stories!  

#WorldReadAloudDay #WRAD #WRAD18 #LIASAMAIG