Prof Zaheer Hamid, academic director at Mancosa and head of the School of Education, said audio recordings of the storytelling series will be available free of charge on Mancosa\u2019s website (www.mancosa.co.za) until May 1.<\/p>\n
The stories will also be available on Mancosa\u2019s social media pages \u2013 Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.<\/p>
He said keeping children occupied during the lockdown could prove quite a challenge.<\/p>\n
While some schools were sending out work, many children who were feeling the impact of the current global catastrophe needed a digital diet that was both lighthearted and uplifting.<\/p>\n
\u201cLockdown must not only be about schoolwork for children.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey also need time to set their minds free to imagine, dream and indulge in creativity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur children have been in isolation for the past few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first couple of days were spent delighting in their newly found freedom out of school. But then what?<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of our humanitarian activities aimed at giving back to communities during the pandemic, we decided to focus on children by keeping them entertained with stories, even if only for a few minutes each day,\u201d Hamid said, adding Mancosa was fortunate to secure award-winning Mhlope as a narrator.<\/p>\n
Mhlope said she had chosen stories with an African theme and would deliberately expose children to a wide vocabulary and provide them with verbal and mental stimuli – something they would be missing since the closing of schools.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ALSO READ:<\/span><\/p>\n Children\u2019s Corner \u2013 Story time with Leigh<\/a><\/p>\n A tribute to SA healthcare workers and all South Africans<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI have specifically chosen stories that will take children\u2019s minds somewhere else during these dark and gloomy days,\u201d said Mhlophe.<\/p>\n Mhlophe has cultivated a career spanning several decades of telling stories since first being influenced by her grandmother\u2019s tales when she was a child.<\/p>\n Mhlophe\u2019s written and performance talent has transported her from South Africa to South and North America to Europe, Greenland and Japan. She has performed her stories in theatres like Royal Albert Hall, the Kennedy Centre in the US and collaborated with Ladysmith Black Mambazo on a children\u2019s CD.<\/p>\n She again worked with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Francis Bebey quartet in a unique production, Africa at the Opera, which toured Opera houses in Germany.<\/p>\n Mhlophe has worked tirelessly running Nozincwadi Mother of Books Literacy Campaign since 2001, to help make South Africa a Reading Nation.<\/p>\n The storytelling endeavour by Mancosa also finds connection with its founder professor Yusuf Karodia\u2019s belief that reading is an essential ingredient for children to improve their literacy, further their education and to brighten their future.<\/p>\n Through the Yusuf Karodia Foundation, he has launched the \u201cMillion Books Project\u201d which aims to provide more than a million books to school children across South Africa through mobile libraries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hav<\/strong>e a story?<\/strong><\/p>\n Contact the newsroom by emailing: Melissa Hart (Editor)\u00a0<\/span>germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za,<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Leigh Hodgson (News Editor)\u00a0<\/span>leighh@caxton.co.za\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>or Busi Vilakazi (Journalist)\u00a0busiv@caxton.co.za.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Also follow us on:<\/p>\n
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