Ready Read Rise

Inspiring non-profit organisation Read to Rise is creating opportunities for children in impoverished South African communities to broaden their horizons through reading.

- LUNGISA MNQWAZI

Author, screenwriter and television producer George R. R. Martin once said, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”

When Taryn Lock and her husband Athol Williams founded Read to Rise, a non-profit organisation (NPO) that promotes youth literacy in underresourced communities, it was to see the broader society being able to live multiple lives through reading.

In 2011, Taryn was working as a strategy analyst at Old Mutual and decided to take a year’s sabbatical to join Athol, who was studying in Boston, USA. During that year, she volunteered to teach English to Chinese immigrants.

“That experience changed me. It made me realise how much you could improve someone’s life by just helping them to read and speak English. I had found my passion for literacy and helping others. Before returning to South Africa, I decided to quit my corporate job and follow my passion,” Taryn recalls.

When the couple returned from the USA, they wanted to do something to help children read, and went book shopping. “The books at stores were very expensive, not written by local authors and the stories were not very inspiring, especially for children growing up in challenging environments. So we decided to write our own book,” says Taryn.