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Shine Centre encourages children to develop and nurture a love for reading and highlights the many benefits of reading

London 13.12.12: The STARS Foundation has selected The Shine Centre as this year’s recipient of the Africa-Middle East Rising Star Award, which includes $15,000 of unrestricted funding and tailored consultancy support. The organisation was selected for its contribution to promoting reading as an empowering skill amongst children and their families primarily in the greater Cape Town area. With the slogan ‘Words can Change Worlds’ at its core, and through community involvement and partnerships, Shine aims to inspire South Africa to become a nation of readers.

Shine aims to address the high illiteracy rate in South Africa by improving literacy levels among children in schools and disadvantaged communities. It does this by running a structured language and literacy programme, training organisations to encourage children to read together, equipping schools with the necessary resources, empowering parents and caregivers to participate in their children’s literacy development, and advocating for policy changes.

In addition to its own flagship centres, the organisation facilitates the establishment of social franchises and reading clubs called Shine ‘Chapters’. Training workshops for this highly replicable model consist of a two-part course called ‘Shine in a Box’. Part One provides training on simple methods, tools and activities to strengthen the early literacy development of children and to encourage a love of reading and books. Part Two, which focuses on operational issues and the methodology surrounding the bespoke Shine Literacy Games, is offered in addition to organisations or individuals who wish to set up Shine ‘Chapters’ (social franchises).

“The work of the Shine Centre encourages children to develop and nurture a love for reading and highlights the many benefits of reading. This simple act that so many of us take for granted has the power to not only increase the self-confidence of the child but also empower entire communities. In addition, the organisation’s highly replicable operating system carries huge potential and can easily be applied nationwide, which is why the STARS Foundation has awarded the Shine Centre this year’s Africa and Middle East Rising Star Award,” said STARS Foundation Programme Officer, Samia Zoued.

Since its establishment in 2000, Shine’s work and reach has grown significantly as the organisation’s innovative programmes encourage children, parents, communities and businesses to work in partnership towards securing a better education for the children of South Africa. One such collaboration has resulted in eye testing in schools and the provision of free spectacles.

“Shine believes that targeted early literacy support for children fosters independent learning habits, instils confidence and curiosity, and is key to raising literacy rates and wider educational standards in South Africa. With the additional unrestricted funding provided by the STARS Foundation, we will invest in and consolidate our current systems and expand our literacy programme into different provinces in South Africa,” said Shine’s Executive Director, Maurita Glynn Weissenberg.

In addition to awarding the Africa-Middle East 2012 Rising Star Award to the Shine Centre, the STARS Foundation also selected The South Africa Education & Environment Project (SAEP), also from South Africa, as this year’s Africa-Middle East ‘runner up’. SAEP’s holistic programme works to improve the lives of children and youth in South Africa’s disadvantaged township communities by providing educational support at every level of their academic development. SAEP’s high school programmes support high-potential students, teach advanced computer skills, offer art workshops, and run environment clubs. SAEP also offers programmes for early childhood development.

ABOUT THE STARS FOUNDATION IMPACT AWARDS

The STARS Foundation improves the lives of disadvantaged children and their communities globally and believes that local organisations are best placed to respond to the needs of their communities and the children in their care. Through the Impact Awards, STARS helps already effective organisations become even stronger by enhancing their capacity to deliver vital services on the ground. It does this by offering recipients a unique package of unrestricted funding and tailored consultancy support.

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary this year, STARS has committed to affecting the lives of 20 million people across 100 countries by 2020, by focusing on two key programmes:

1. Expanding the STARS Impact Awards (building on its success of 40 Awards, 1.5million people reached) to strengthen more outstanding NGOs working with disadvantaged children and communities in the categories of Health, Education, Protection and WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) in the countries ranked highest for under-five mortality rates by UNICEF.

2. Launching a new operational unit called STARS Game Changing Initiatives, which will incubate and develop new solutions, in the form of innovative products and ideas, to pressing development needs in collaboration with companies, high performing local NGOs and the communities they serve.

NOTES TO EDITORS

For further information or interview requests, please contact Mona Samari, email: [email][email protected], telephone: +44 (0) 7515 828 939 (Case studies and photography are available).