Engaging, Educating and Empowering
How a love of literature was ignited by reading stories on my cellphone
By Zimkhitha Mlanzeli
Sitting in a train twiddling my thumbs, I am dreading the journey home. I look forward to the solitude of my empty little shack; it’s the hour and a half it will take me to get there that I dislike. Logging onto my Mxit (the most popular African social network), only to find the one contact I have not online, dampens my mood further. Then an advert comes on, and because I have nothing better to do I open it.
“FunDza is FunDzalicious! For your dose of romance, drama, crime and much more, click to see all the fun stuff waiting for you!”
I click and find a library of short stories; something unseen and unheard of in the world of social networking. The highlighted story of the week, A Future in Flames is published up to 3 chapters. I can’t wait for the next chapter (unaware that they post a chapter a day) so I navigate the pages and find FunDza Fanz with more stories. I read One moment, and by the time I am half way through the story, I have arrived at my destination.
From that day on I now had a habit that made my commuting to work and back an enjoyable and fast traveling experience. I hadn’t held a book in over a year, but from that day on I formed a habit that made my commute fast and enjoyable; I simply had no time to go borrow a book from the library. Having this library on my phone proved so convenient. And the fact that it cost me a few cents, (literally) meant I could afford to read without worrying about the expense .
What I loved most about the stories was that they are written by young South Africans for young South Africans. They address issues that we face in our daily lives and I could relate to half the characters. Though most are fiction the settings are real; our locations that we live in and the language used is the daily slang that we use everyday. It was easy to get hooked on them because there is no relevant literature, in book form or otherwise, out there.
I read one story and found myself saying, “I can write better than that!” and that very day during my half hour lunch break, I wrote my first short story.
After sending it, my nerves got the better of me and I didn’t visit the site for a few days. But two days later, the story was up and already there were comments on it. I felt overwhelmed.
A month later, after 2 short stories and one sequel (because readers just wanted more) I sent another one, Letters to Jane. When I received an email saying they loved the story and they would like to commission it, I was bewildered.
Because I had always wanted to work in publishing but had no qualification or experience, just a gift backed up by the readers’ comments, I decided that one more rejection from another publisher won’t kill me. I asked for any employment opening they knew of; I was willing to go from Customer Service Agent with Matric to cleaner or tea-girl just so I could be there (I had read enough Cinderella stories to believe it was possible) and work at a publication.
That was 8 months ago. I am now sitting in a friendly office environment with 2 established authors, 3 of the most influential women in business and the most efficient Development Studies Honours student I have ever met.
I now work with young aspiring writers from across the country, not only to get their work published, but also to develop their writing skills. We also do writing workshops at different institutions to groom these young authors. How many people get to say, “I work to engage, educate and empower young people” when they are asked what they do for a living?
The FunDza Literacy Trust works to improve literacy by popularising reading and writing for South African Youth, particularly those from impoverished communities. South Africa remains a society divided on racial and class lines. Education, which provides the fuel for social and economic mobility, is largely failing the majority of young people. South Africa is ranked 133 out of 142 countries in terms of the quality of its education system, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2011/12. As movements like Equal Education point out, the education received by young people in SA remains vastly unequal, even after 18 years of democracy. Only 8% of schools have libraries and only 5% of parents read to their children. This means that very few people have the opportunity to develop a love of reading and experience its proven benefits.
FunDza runs three outreach programmes that work together to ensure that we break down the barriers to reading.
Growing communities of readers: Since most young people spend a huge amount of time on their cell phones, Fundza presents novels and short stories directly on mobile phones, through a mobi-site and Mxit portal. Even without a smartphone, our 350,000 can access specially commissioned new literature for free (only a tiny datacost applies). In South Africa, the book buying market is small, and cost puts books out of reach of most young people. Having 8000 reads of a short-story in just a few weeks is remarkable, showing the desire to read is exists. “This was the best story I’ve ever read, specially one from a phone. I’ve just explored this part of Mxit yesterday and I’m not looking back. I am looking forward to more stories soon.” Lunga – a university student.
Popularising reading: FunDza also works with 160 beneficiary groups around South Africa - under-resourced youth groups, libraries and schools. FunDza sends sets of carefully selected (physical books,) page turners, with exciting plots that hook the readers and develop an emotional connection with books, to support the reading groups.
Developing young writers: Readers, who are ‘FunDza Fanz” are encouraged to share their voices and develop their own writing skills by submitting their stories to be showcased on the site. FunDza also runs Write4Life workshops (offline) that develop writing skills. “Big ups fundza, you are doing a wonderful job, I learned a lot within two days at Etafeni fit for life-fit for work course. Thank you. Asanda Bona.” - Yanela
While we’re working on ways of becoming self-sustaining, we rely on donations to do our work. Support our registered non-profit by clicking here to make a secure donation.
FunDza has recently been named by FastCompany as one of “The Worlds’ Top 10 Most innovative Companies in Education”. We are very proud to have received this accolade but we’re more excited to be sparking a far-reaching “Reading Revolution”.
For more info email nicci@fundza.co.za
