Literacy has a direct impact on an individual’s economic and personal opportunities. A recent study revealed that almost 80% of South African learners have not developed basic reading skills by the time they are 11 years old. help2read’s mission is to support children aged 5 to 12 in learning how to read and to develop a love of reading. Their model is straightforward and effective: they recruit, train and support literate adult volunteers from local communities to help disadvantaged primary school children who struggle to read. These volunteers work on a one-on-one basis with each child for half an hour, twice a week, providing them with support over at least one year.
CAF Venturesome first supported help2read in 2010 with a £35,000 loan from the Development Fund which enabled them to hire a fundraiser in Cape Town. With their repayments on track for this first loan, CAF Venturesome provided a second facility of £85,000 in January 2014 to help with UK-based fundraising. help2read is an organisation that has impressive scalability, since 2010 they have expanded their activities within South Africa and to pilots and partnerships across southern Africa, including Malawi and Namibia. We see this progress as hugely encouraging for their future growth and were keen to continue supporting them to further increase their impact.