If ever there was a time – a week, a month, a year – when we needed song, dance and light, it was this one. The Stanford Festival’s motto is ‘permission to play’ and the children of Stanford were grateful as well as happy to do just that. Nobody let the necessity for masks and […]
An evening of Song, Dance and Light Read More »
Children’s Book Network has a new home. It is an office with carpets, a desk and bookshelves. It also has a collection of boxes of books, stationery, art materials and teddy bears. (The teddy bears arrived in Stanford riding pillion on motorbikes in the annual Biker’s Run, and are much loved reading companions for the
A truly moving experience Read More »
Yesterday (19th November) a very informal meeting was attended by 14 individuals and organizations working with children in Stanford. Tomorrow … in the future … we hope to be more in contact with each other and able to share what we do, ask for and offer help, and give each other support. The venue was
Yesterday … and Tomorrow Read More »
At Children’s Book Network, we don’t do black. In keeping with our new Happiness Project for the children, we are offering you the chance to avoid the crowds in the mall next Friday and gift something worthwhile (and yellow) to children who need books and reading. It is much easier than choosing between two-for-the-price-of-one, or
Happy (Bright) Yellow Friday Read More »
Pictured are some of the elements of this work around the sense of taste good – and as the gentlemen on the front cover ably demonstrate – bad as well! To see the full 20-page text, go to: https://www.childrensbook.co.za/home-reading-ideas Our Lockdown Learning Project is at the same place.
New module of Happiness Project on site! Read More »
On Thursday 19th at 11.00 am at Madre’s in Stanford, there will be a very informal – and brief – meeting between those involved with the children of this village and surrounds. There is no intention to form a grand-sounding association, have minutes of the meeting, or produce another acronym to confuse the world. The
Pictured here are past staff member Lisa Witherden (left) and mainstay Wilien van Zyl (right) proudly wearing CBN tee-shirts and walking with the Lighthouse2Lighthouse ladies who raise funding for projects in the Overstrand every year. This was one of their practice walks allowing for a great deal of networking and the opportunity to get fit
What a relief to write a different number. The year 2021 already sounds a lot better than the one we have just had (and will never forget). As always, there is no room for complacency, but we have had a look at the future and made plans, whatever happens. Apart from Covid, there is also
CBN Plans for 2021 Read More »
This is what the children receive in their packs every week. Then there are books that are shared between the group, book club books also available, and reading packs containing the reading and activities, and imagination cards that the children are used to using in workshops. There is so much for them to do, that
Happiness Project – Reading packs Read More »
An informal meeting will be held at Madre’s restaurant on 19th November at 11.00 for all those working with the children in and around Stanford. AGENDA: • A simple connection and exchange of information so that each of us knows what is happening with other groups. • Creating a visual map of where the children
Calling people working with Stanford’s children Read More »
Vuyo has been working with CBN for four years now, in a job she gradually expanded into, until we can’t imagine how we managed without her. She began as a workshop assistant, took over the business end of getting permission forms to parents, getting the De Kop informal settlement children to Stanford and even making
Vuyokazi Siza – local facilitator Read More »
Daisy Verburg arrived for coffee just when we needed her. One thing led to another, as tends to happen with CBN, and she has now started as our official fundraiser and manager of social media. That is going to be a demanding job in this new, and difficult time. Everyone in the world is looking
Introducing our new fundraiser and social media whizz Read More »
The books, the books, the books! When we decided to give the children hard-back books instead of loose papers to write and draw on, we hoped that they would react by taking ownership of the project and making it their own. We wanted some consistency and dedication. We wanted more focus on the job in
The books, the books, the books! Read More »
CBN’s Administration person is one totally reliable friend! Arriving for any meeting precisely 30 seconds before start time, she is unfailingly organized, calm and prepared, ready to take on whatever we throw at her (and that’s usually quite a lot!) and unflappable in the face of last-minute change, sudden emergencies or unexpected diversions. The only
Wilien van Zyl – CBN shooting star! Read More »
In an age of television and instant switch-on, children find it hard to get to the heart of a story or a text. We aim with the Happiness Project to show them that they can find happiness in small events and hone their skills to understand more deeply what is happening around them. We chose
What our new project is all about? Read More »
This project has been enormous. It has also been enormous fun, enormous amounts of work, enormous amounts of hope and a strong belief that it will happen. It came from a desire to lighten up a little, to give the CBN children a break from the anxiety of a long season of lockdown and worry.
We have some happy children! Read More »
My favourite kind of people are the ones who say they are going to do something, ignore the muttered voices saying it isn’t possible, and then go right ahead and do it. Book Dash people are that sort. One Hundred books owned by every child under five is a serious undertaking. Some people raised their
Book Heroes – Book Dash Read More »
Lisa Witherden arrived like a lucky bean at just the time we needed her. Within two weeks of introducing herself, lockdown began and she was hard at work with the team to create the 18-week project called Lockdown Learning. This was envisaged as being eight weeks long, but the severity of the lockdown in South
Leaving CBN for greener pastures … Read More »
Keeping us on the straight and narrow – Elsa Gebhard It is way beyond time that we recognized the immense amount of work that Elsa puts in to keeping our books up to date, arranging the annual audit and attending board meetings to report on progress and generally making sure that we hand in the
This week, the first unit of the Happiness Project has reached the children we work with in De Kop informal settlement. It is the beginning of a new phase in our efforts to work with children remotely instead of through workshops. During lockdown – from early March to late September – we sent out 100
Time for new Happiness! Read More »
