The FunDza Literacy Trust (a not-for-profit organisation) is hosting its first ever National Mobi-read-a-thon in which young people all over South Africa will be encouraged to ‘Read to Win’. They will sign up to Mxit on their cellphones; join the FundDza mobi-library portal; read a gripping short story and answer three short questions to stand in line to win their share of over R20 000 in prizes.
FunDza works to revolutionise reading in South Africa by breaking down the barriers that stop young people reading for pleasure. These barriers center around content – there is a dearth of stories that reflect the lives of young South Africans today; access – books are too expensive and libraries are non-existent or non-functioning; and simply – that reading isn’t seen to be ‘cool’.
Thanks to the support of Media24’s ’Space to Grow‘ initiative, FunDza will advertise the Mobi-read-a-thon across national publications including City Press, Daily Sun, Sunday Sun, Drum, Move and Real magazines ensuring that thousands of young people will be made aware of the competition and more importantly, the mobi-library.
Mxit has also agreed to promote the competition to its more than 9.3-million registered users while RLabs have provided technical support to run the competition and Michalsons Attorneys is auditing the promotional competition.
FunDza commissions gripping, high-interest stories that centre on issues faced by South Africans between the ages of 14 and 25 by publishing new home-grown stories on its mobi-network each week, ensuring that almost all South Africans can access the content via Mxit on their “ordinary” cellphones – no smart phones required. And, by encouraging comments and engagement with the stories, FunDza is ‘growing a community of readers’ with already 350 000 registered readers. Between 4 000 and 20 000 visit, read and comment on the stories on a daily basis.
The mobi-read-a-thon will run from 2-21 December.
You can visit FunDza’s mobi library here.
“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.
Prizes have been sponsored by Pick n Pay, KFC, Cover2Cover, Penguin, NoMu, Drum, Juta and Vodacom.
If you would like to support FunDza and find out about our other programmes please visit https://www.fundza.co.za or contact info@fundza.co.za.
