The Learning Lunch podcast explores ideas, approaches and social innovations – creating opportunity for non-profit organisations’ teams to discover what others are learning and space to reflect on what these insights might mean for their own strategy and programme implementation.
Owning books can change a child’s life trajectory. This is a profound statement rooted in evidence from research around the world. Toddlers who are read to learn more words, aiding their ability to speak and read when they start school, and children who read for enjoyment perform well academically.
The advantage of owning books is significant — children with books at home have the edge on children who don’t, irrespective of their parents’ income or educational attainment. But many South Africans, mostly in poorer communities, are not experiencing the positive impact of book ownership since a quarter of households have no books at all.
There is a solution — giving books to children for free to support their early language development and emergent literacy. Other countries are already doing this; for instance, the United Kingdom gives families free books to encourage reading to children at home.
In this podcast, we talk about the value of owning books and whether our country needs a national book giveaway programme for our poorest children. Our guests are Kwanda Ndoda, Project Lead of Umncedi, Ongeziwe Nxokwana, Innovation Manager at DGMT and Dorette Louw, Director of Programmes and Operations at Book Dash.
Dorette Louw is Director of Programmes and Operations at Book Dash, worked in senior positions in different educational publishing companies for more than 20 years before joining Book Dash in 2018. Her work at Book Dash combines her two great professional loves: publishing and making a difference to the lives of children.
Ongeziwe Nxokwana is an Innovation Manager at DGMT focused on strengthening literacy and numeracy outcomes in South Africa. With nearly 10 years of experience in the development sector, she is deeply passionate about working with children, education and creating pathways to learning. Ongeziwe was recognised as a 2025 Mandela Washington Fellow and one of the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans for 2025.
Kwanda Ndoda is a civil engineer turned development practitioner and is the Umncedi Project Lead. Umncedi connects constituents and shares information and resources with the ECD sector.
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