Miss South Africa Shudufhadzo Musida today visited Riverton Primary in Bishop Lavis as part of the Cape Town leg to promote her new children’s book Shudu Finds Her Magic.
The book is already a best-seller. It only went into bookstores at the beginning of the month and a reprint has already been ordered.
Musida spent time with the learners and read to them as part of her campaign to inspire reading and make mental health awareness understandable to children.
Joined by her Sun International Grand West family, Musida and the group visited a food garden to the school and also handed out 400 meals and snack packs, thanks to the Chefs that Care school feeding programme.
Says Musida of the visit: “It was amazing – it combined two of my biggest passions which are mental health literacy and food security, the latter is a huge problem currently facing our country. It was wonderful to see it being addressed sustainably at the school with the donation of a food garden. This is much needed in our society – we need to teach people how to do things for themselves so the project bears fruit long after we have visited and gives it longevity.
“I was also honoured to be able to read Shudu Finds Her Magic to the children and speak about literary and education awareness.”
GrandWest Casino is supporting International Literacy month by providing books and a mini-library to Riverton Primary in Bishop Lavis. The donation, made through NPO Rise 2 Read, will focus on learners from Grades 2 to 4 and will provide them with an interactive classroom programme as well as mini-libraries.
GrandWest General Manager Mervyn Naidoo said: “School children in our disadvantaged communities only read about one to two books a year but they need to be exposed to about 50 books in that time. Children not only need to learn to read, they need to learn to read to understand which will assist them as they progress through higher grades, and it will spark their imaginations and creativity. We hope that through the Rise 2 Read initiative we will have sparked a lifelong love of reading and learning for pupils at Riverton Primary School.”
Published by Jacana Media, Shudu Finds Her Magic is available in six languages and includes colourful illustrations by Chantelle and Burgen Thorne.
The book, which is aimed at children aged between four and nine years of age, is inspired by Musida’s own childhood and the bullying she experienced when she moved to a new province and a new school.
Shudu Finds Her Magic – which retails at R95 – is available in Afrikaans (Shudu Vind Haar Sprankel), English (Shudu Finds Her Magic), Sesotho (Shudu O Sibolla Boikgetho ba hae), Venda (Shudu u wana Vhuṱolo Hawe), Xhosa (uShudu u Fumanisa ukuba UnoMlingo) and Zulu (uShudu Uthola Umlingo Wakhe).