Learners urged to take up the pen to tackle their problems
30 May 2019
South Africa’s next generation of writers are honing their skills in Delft.
A group of 60 girls from Rosendal Primary and Belhar Primary attended a writing workshop at the Delft school. The workshop was launched by the Afrikaanse Taalraad, in collaboration with its member organisations.
The member organisations included Pen-Afrikaans, who made an author, EKM Dido, available to speak to learners from a writer’s perspective.
The other presenters were David Jantjies and Lukas Hanekom from SAOOT with the theme: Stories, creative writing and mother tongue. WOW's Leonie Timmet did orientation for writing with the learners.
Merlyn van der Rheede, Afrikaanse Taalraad project manager, said the organisers specifically invited girls because they struggle with unique challenges and it will help to pin down such problems on paper. “We also wanted to expose the girls to the world of the writer and share the value of creative writing with them. We hope they will get so excited that they will take up their pens and write their stories! So, we started digging for writing gems among the girls and hope to enter some of their stories for a WCED competition.”
The next writing workshops will take place in August and October.
