Jennifer

When I first joined Mikhulu Trust, I admired and respected the organisation for their focus and interest in delivering evidence-based interventions. Now, and throughout the pandemic period, my motivation and love for our work comes from our impact on parents and caregivers who spend their days at home with their young children, and who now feel supported to develop loving and stimulating relationships with them. At Mikhulu Trust, we truly believe that all parents and caregivers, regardless of their education or income level, can be their children’s first and best teachers. At Mikhulu Trust, we truly believe that all parents [...]

For Anele, storytelling is a family tradition that his father passed down to him, and that he continues with his own children. Becoming a book-sharing facilitator has allowed Anele to tell stories to his children in a different way - stories are told together, using wordless picture books. “When I am reading now, I’m not just reading a book to my child. I am sharing the book with them. They are leading the story and leading me.” Anele advocates that if more fathers become actively involved in book-sharing and storytelling, we would quickly see the positive impacts around reading in South [...]

Three organisations join forces to launch The Book-sharing Fatherhood Project Mikhulu Trust is joining hands with Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) to investigate the impact that book-sharing can have on fathers' relationships with their children and what that could mean for the violence that plagues South African society. Mikhulu Trust’s Book-sharing programme has been reaching caregivers since 2017, with most caregivers being women. “Book-sharing, as an activity, can be done by any caregiver, but we needed to explore why fathers were not joining the programme. In this research project, we plan to redesign [...]

Growing up without a father and working long hours in the youth sector meant John was not very involved in raising his son. When John started his book-sharing facilitator training, he was encouraged to spend time with his son at home and practice book-sharing. John welcomes the new relationship that he and his son have built and believes that book-sharing could benefit fathers across the country. Together, in doing so, this could benefit South Africa as a whole. A different experience of family John’s childhood was a very different experience to his son’s. “I never got a chance to [...]

Shameem Fisher is a teacher with a real love for books. This love is something that she has wished to instill in her son, Seth. When Shameem and Seth joined book-sharing sessions, they found a welcoming and understanding space where Seth was free to be himself. Shameem would like to encourage all parents to start book-sharing, and especially parents of children with disabilities - “book-sharing is for all children”. The decision to book-share As a child with autism and who is partially verbal, Seth’s mum was looking for something that they could do together to relax, while also helping [...]

Mikhulu Trust launches #MyStoryMyLanguage competition - with a prize of 40 beautiful South African children’s books! In celebration of our traditional stories and diverse mother languages, the Mikhulu Trust is launching the #MyStoryMyLanguage competition, which will culminate on International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2021. The lucky winner will receive a selection of beautiful South African children’s storybooks, kindly donated by partner organisations, in the winner’s mother-tongue or preferred languages. How to enter the competition Parents and caregivers across South Africa are invited to enter the competition simply by summarising, in the comments on our #MyStoryMyLanguage Facebook [...]

In June 2020, the Mikhulu Trust ventured into new territory: online training for book-sharing facilitators. Ten librarians from the City of Cape Town attended this training - and now, as book-sharing facilitators, they have exciting visions on how this skill can impact their communities in the future. The challenges of lockdown Under normal circumstances, the Mikhulu Trust team heads out into Cape Town’s neighbourhoods to ‘teach teachers’ how to run book-sharing courses with parents and caregivers. A group of librarians had been lined up to receive book-sharing training to give to parents and caregivers visiting their libraries - but [...]

Moses, who lives in Gordon's Bay with his wife and two children, had no father figure to growing up. Lockdown has had an unexpected impact on his idea of fatherhood.There has been a ‘beautiful chemistry’ in his house, and book-sharing has been a key part of this. Moses encourages other fathers to follow suit. Moses is into 'breaking cycles'. He grew up with his mother and siblings in Soweto, Johannesburg. 'When my Mum got pregnant with me, my Dad ran away,' he explains. Life was not always easy, but he has always been aware of his desire to be an [...]

The Cadbury Dairy Milk Glass & a Half Project joins hands with Mikhulu Trust to distribute picture books to children.The Mikhulu Trust is excited to partner with the Cadbury Dairy Milk Glass & a Half Project to raise R1-million worth of educational toys, books and games, for orphaned and vulnerable children across South Africa. As a partner, our specially-designed and locally-illustrated books will be distributed to children’s homes where book-sharing is most needed.Lockdown has been particularly difficult for children living in care across South Africa as their access to education, volunteers and extra mural activities has been curbed. In response, a [...]