Readers Project

South Africa has at least 3 million adults who cannot read or write, 5-8 million whose reading and writing ability is very low and tens of millions of South Africans who do not read regularly. Only a very small section of public, estimated at 1% of the total population reads and buys books both for leisure (fiction) and self-education or self-advancement ( non-fiction). This stark reality has stimulated the Jozi Book Fair embark on a Reading Project aimed at: 
  • Creating readers through interventions and programmes aimed at promoting a culture of reading by encouraging communities to organise themselves into organised reading formations like Book Clubs, Study Groups, Reading Circles, Friends of the Libraries forming community resource centres, etc. 
  • Supporting exisiting formation of organised readers by connecting them to public libraries and other support infrastructure and programmes. 
  • Improving and strengthening the work of organised readers through programmes like reading workshops, book launches, conversations with authors, linking groups with film clubs and film makers, reading and story telling sessions and reading competitions. 
  • Encouraging reading by publishing book reviews, poems and short stories by members of organised reading groups in “ My Class” the newsletter of the Jozi Book Fair. 
  • Working with libraries on campaigns to improve the acquisitions of libraries, especially those in townships and also engaging in campaigns to promote access to affordable books for readers.
 Profile of Khanya Study Groups:  

  1. Palesa Book club

  2. Bolshevik Study Group

  3. Flame Study Group

  4. Merafong Demarcation Forum Study Group

  5. Soweto Concerned Residents (SCR) Study Group

  6. Alternative Media Productions Study Group

  7. Spartucus Study Group

  8. Kathorus Concerned Residents (KCR) Study Group