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About us

Nal’ibali (isiXhosa for “here’s the story”) is a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign to spark children’s potential through storytelling and reading.

About us

About us

Nal’ibali (isiXhosa for “here’s the story”) is a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign. It seeks to spark and embed a culture of reading in children from birth to 12 years of age, across South Africa, through cultivating, enticing reading content in all South African languages. Nal'ibali promotes the use of home languages in nurturing and strengthening reading culture in children as home language is transparent, easy to learn and is the first language that children connect with, in order to socialise and make sense of the world around them. Nal'ibali stories build a healthy ongoing appetite in children to engage more with reading, and to develop other important literacy skills while creating their own reading experiences. Children who develop strong relationships with books and reading materials early, are more likely to adopt and sustain a culture of reading. Adults who are in children's spaces have the responsibility to nurture a love of reading in children as early as possible, to advance children's development.  

Vision

For all children to have positive experiences with stories and reading books.

Mission 

To spark a love of stories, build language and literacy skills, and promote lifelong reading culture in homes, schools and communities across South Africa. 

Core organisational values, actions and behaviours

 

Awards

2022

Nal'ibali, one of 26 strategic implementation partners of the Social Employment Fund, won the Industrial Development Corporation’s Wage Champion award, for meeting their quality standards!

 

2019

Nal’ibali is the recipient of the US Library of Congress Literacy Awards Programme.

2019

The Joy of Reading Prize by the Systematic Joy of Reading at Dook 1 in Aarhus, Denmark.


2018:
Third place at the African Union's Innovation in Education Prize for the work Nal'ibali has done on its Multilingual Supplements.

 

2015 
Cultural Affairs Award for the Best Contribution to Language Development from the Western Cape Government.

 

 

2015 
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), the largest award for children’s literature in the world, received by PRAESA (Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa), co-founders of the Nal’ibali campaign.

2014
The IBBY-ASAHI Reading Promotion Award.