What's
PUKU's main objective, and how are you working towards that?
Technology has
not being harnessed extensively and systematically to support Southern African
language children’s educational or recreational resources, until Puku. Puku.co.za is the first authoritative
multilingual, interdisciplinary reference site and resource on African
children’s literature.
The principle aim
of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation is to bridge
both the literacy and digital divide that confronts the vast majority of
Southern African children. The Foundation works towards this with
development of digital, mobile, radio and storytelling programmes to
improve the quality and quantity of children’s educational
and recreational materials in all Southern African languages.
Give us a brief background on PUKU
The Book Development
Foundation (BDF) was an entity comprised of various representatives of South
Africa’s book chain i.e. publishers, printers, authors and reading promotion
organizations. From its inception the BDF partnered with the National Library
of South Africa (NLSA) in running the Centre for the Book. This partnership
ended in 2007 when the NLSA made it clear that the Centre for the Book should
come fully under control of the NLSA and saw no role for the BDF. The board of
the BDF subsequently decided to close the BDF and distribute the assets to
book-related projects. Elinor Sisulu and Colleen Higgs proposed that the BDF
consider giving a portion of the funds to start a children’s literature
website. The BDF Board gave them go ahead to present a proposal and the result
was puku.co.za.
Since it went
online in October 2009, puku.co.za has established itself as the premier
online resource for children’s literature in Southern Africa.
Puku.co.za was the only web weekly newspaper on African children’s
literature and digital content.
literature and digital content.
What programmes and campaigns have you done and embarked on previously?
Our digital platform was our biggest
programme over the last two years. Users can now search for books by languages,
age or genre. We can now also feature news events, tips for
writers/illustrators, feature publishers, share reading recommendations and
learn more about the work of the Foundation on our site. The sleek and clean
design courtesy of ThoughtWorks SA is ideal for mobile users. This is a great
leap forward for our online presence but we still have far to go.
What are currently focusing on?
Puku is currently working towards launch of
the first-ever isiXhosa Children’s Story Festival showcasing and promoting the
recreational and educational children’s reading materials produced by South
Africa writers, publishers and illustrators, in isiXhosa. This festival will
feature storytelling, book challenges, book sales and readings, workshops for teachers
and librarians, and panel discussions.
What
partnerships have you formed that have enabled you to deliver on your
mandate?
Working with organisations such as the
National Arts Festival, the African Studies Department of Rhodes University,
the Grahamstown Foundation, South Africa Primary Education Support Initiative
(SAPESI), Nal’ibali, African Storybook Project (ASP), Constitution Hill and
Gcinamasiko Arts and Heritage Trust, we are working towards a number of
projects to fulfil our mandate. On the digital side, the work done by our
technology partners ThoughtWorks SA and Dimension Data is invaluable.
What's PUKU's view on our education system,
especially our very low literacy standards?
For many
children, the textbooks or supplementary educational materials ordered by
schools are the only reading materials they have access to. In the absence of a
variety of relevant, engaging materials, it is not surprising that few children
are motivated to read outside of their textbooks. The result is that the less
children read, the less proficient they become; the less literate they are, the
worse their educational outcomes. Education is like a building – without sound
foundations, the structure will never be stable. Nobel Laureate Heckman (1999)
has demonstrated that education investments at ECD stage cost less than similar
investments in adults and have more impact.
By providing culturally, linguistically and contextually relevant
content to African children we increase their chances of loving reading, improving
on literacy rates, and ECD overall, especially within the most disadvantaged
communities.
How do we make reading fun for children?
How do we make reading fun for children?
Africans need to develop relevant,
exciting, diverse, cheap children’s book in all our local languages. We can’t
continue to rely on only state-sanctioned textbooks or on European texts that
have little relevance to children growing up in South Africa’s rural areas or
on books written decades ago. We need young people to become the producers of
content and we need them to write stories that are engaging, fun and
intelligent. Sometimes we can be too elitist about how we think about books –
kids books can be silly or funny or scary, not just educational and not just
with a moral to the story. South African children need more graphic novels,
more comic books, more board books and more novels for cellphones: anything
that makes reading accessible and easy.
As the Head of PUKU, what's your vision for your term?
We already have thousands of visitors to
puku.co.za every month but I’d like to see thousands more parents and teachers
making use of the site to find and buy African children’s books. I look forward
to the successful launch of a number of indigenous language children’s story
festivals and I hope that Puku can expand onto radio and reach more of South
African’s most materially deprived communities.
How do we (people) get involved in helping
PUKU spread their message?
Follow us on Twitter, become a fan on
Facebook and visit our site. Have a look at our reviews policy; write and
submit reviews of local books in local languages. Support African writers and
illustrators: buy children’s books! If you can’t afford to buy books, visit the
library. Tell your kids stories: keep our languages alive.
If forced to pick only one: Donna Tartt’s‘The Secret History’.
Visit www.puku.co.za for more details