Fundanii was one of the 53 non-profit organizations to receive micro grants from Google in 2018. This grant has helped build the Fundanii Stories website, a digital storytelling platform for kids and children’s authors aimed to educate pupils in surrounding schools in computer literacy while creating employment opportunities for those that have an interest in software development and IT. It was established by Sinovuyo Apleni and Luthando Gubevu in 2016 and located near East London, Mdantsane.
The stories provide learners with a workbook to complete, which encourages them to develop basic storylines. Sinovuyo revealed that they are working to release an app on Google Play Store next year to ease the process of submitting stories and to open up the initiative to a global market.
“We’re also hoping to partner with the Department of Education to roll out Fundanii Stories to schools across South Africa to spread the love for literacy, storytelling and coding across the country and to assist with the printing of the workbooks, which we currently sell to local schools at a loss to ensure as many youth as possible get an opportunity to participate in this new digital economy.”
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“Luthando also hosts workshops with the pupils to introduce them to PCs which many of them would never have used before and shows them the basics of navigating the Windows operating system and Office suite. Kids are quizzed and their workbooks are marked: top-performing pupils, generally those with grades of 85% or higher, are then taken into more comprehensive coaching. We also animate the best stories and load them onto the new Fundanii Stories website where anyone can access them. It’s our wish that Fundanii Stories becomes a global platform for authentic children’s storytelling, to inspire a new generation of youth to have a passion for literacy – both for the written word and for coding” said Sinovuyo Apleni.
Sunil Geness, Project Lead for Africa Code Week at SAP Africa said the work that Sinovuyo and Luthando has created will make a lasting impact in their community.
“Africa Code Week is built on the principle of building sustainable local capacity for digital skills development among African youth. As the global economy and future jobs shift ever more into the digital realm, it is critical to get our youth excited and inspired to become active participants in the 21st century digital economy. We also commend our partners at Google for recognising the importance of Fundanii’s work in Mdantsane, and we look forward to seeing how their important work continues to grow across our country and beyond.”
Over the past 3 years, Google has been joining forces with SAP to support Africa Code Week as part of its effort to empower 10 million Africans for the workplace.
