Oaky Inter-School Stage Play Competition

Read to Rise, in partnership with Liberty Promenade, hosted the first ever Oaky Inter-School Stage Play Competition in Mitchells Plain.

Ten primary schools participated - Highlands Primary, Meadowridge Primary, Mitchells Plain Primary, Littlewood Primary, Liesbeeck Primary, Hugueot Primary, Dennegeur Avenue Primary, Montagu Drive Primary, Rocklands Primary and AZ Berman Primary Schools.

The First Round took place 1-2 November 2017 at Highlands Primary School. The Grade 3s put on plays based on the book OAKY THE HAPPY TREE written by Athol Williams. All the plays were amazing!

The top four schools went through to the Final on Saturday 11 November 2017 at Liberty Promenade - AZ Berman Primary School, Meadowridge Primary, Rocklands Primary and Liesbeeck Primary Schools. The judges included Michael Wilson, Madeegha Anders and Darren Amos. Hectic Nine 9 presenter Chanelle Davids was  the MC. Congrats to the winning schools:

1st Meadowridge Primary School - R10,000

2nd Rocklands Primary School - R6,000

3rd Liesbeeck Primary School - R3,000

4th AZ Berman Primary  - R1,000

Thank you to Liberty Promenade for sponsoring the competition as well as the Read to Rise programme for 1600 learners at the ten schools.

Residency at Nirox 19-31 October 2017

Athol won a 3 week residency at Nirox as part of the 2016 Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Awards.

The Nirox Sculpture Park is in the Cradle of Humankind and is set on a beautiful park with amazing sculptures around the park. The park was originally a trout farm. We has an amazing few days there. A perfect place for inspiration, quiet and creativity! Even had our own Chef, so was nice not to worry about cooking and doing dishes for a change :)

The Nirox Words Festival took place on 22-23 October 2017. Athol has a few sessions. One with fellow poets Toni Stuart and Lebo Mashile. It was a great session of poetry.

The announcement of the 2017 Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Award was announced during the festival. Athol was the MC as well as one of the English judges for the competition. Well done to all winners.It was the first time that a non-English poem won - well done Moses. Wally Serobe was the main judge.

Athol had a session with Afrikaans poet and TV host Bibi Slippers who shared some of her poetry.

Athol had a great session about his new poetry book INVITATION.

It was a great festival!

Athol the keynote speaker at the Actuarial Society of South Africa Convention 18 October 2017

Athol was the keynote speaker at this year's Actuarial Society of South Africa Convention in Sandton.

Athol's talk was about Possibilities - You, Me, Us. Over 1000 actuaries attended the event.

READ to RISE goes to Limpopo!

READ to RISE visited 5 primary schools in Limpopo 17-20 September 2017. Betting World sponsored books and mini-libraries for almost 2800 learners.

The teams from Mitchells Plain and Soweto visited Makhado (a 6 hour drive from JHB).

Thank you to Betting World and to the wonderful staff who joined the school visits, to hand out books and inspire children to read. 

READ to RISE turns 4!

On 18 September 2017, we celebrated READ to RISE's 4th Birthday!

What an amazing 4 years it has been - we've conducted our programme in over 1600 classes at 90 primary schools, have 9 awesome staff and given out over 80,000 new books to learners in under-resourced communities such as Mitchells Plain, Soweto and surrounds.

On 18 September 2013, Athol and I went to Meadowridge Primary School in Lentegeur Mitchells Plain. We had printed 40 OAKY AND THE SUN books and went to one class to do our programme. After that session, we were so touched by the reaction of the children that we decided to start up an NGO.

We celebrated in Cape Town at The Venue in Lansdowne on Friday 8 September 2017. Local comedian Darren Amos was the MC, guest speakers included Fatima & Gadija Sydow (from Kaap, Kerrie end Koesisters), Mrs Felicity Sasman (Principal of Montagu Drive Primary School) and Athol Williams (poet, philosopher and also co-founder and chairman of READ to RISE).

Madeegha Anders and Nuraan Boltman graced us with their presence - such amazing performances! Thank you for giving of your time.

Thank you to Hadjira for the photos. And to Mrs Williams for the beautiful READ to RISE cake :)

On Sunday 17 September 2017, we celebrated in JHB at The Mediteranean Hotel in Bedfordview. Athol Williams shared some poetry from his new book INVITATION. Both the Mitchells Plain team and Soweto team were present, including Co-Founders Athol Williams and Taryn Lock and Directors Nicholas Williams and Sibongile Maagwaza. Programme Manager Steve Tsakiris was the MC.