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The Shine Centre

 - Bringing literacy and language enrichment to school children with reading difficulties

Cape Town, South Africa

Who are the volunteers: We have a diverse group of people who volunteer as "learning partners". Students, retired folk, young parents, fulltime workers, part-time or flexi-hour workers, people from all over Cape Town and more recently, people from abroad.

Maurita Weissenberg, who established the centre in 2000, says that currently they have over fifty volunteers who partner one or two children in the Foundation Phase or are involved in Literacy Hour.

You don't have to be a qualified teacher. A love of books and children and a willingness to do our basic training is enough. A volunteer's commitment ranges from partnering one child that they see for one session a week, to two full days a week and seeing twenty children a week.

Improving literacy is not the only thing that volunteers do. Teaching art classes, running a garden project and helping in the school library are other areas volunteers help in.

Interested in helping? Please email us!