Books
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Akhona’s Journey
Akhona's Journey takes her through many traumatic experiences, including betrayal by someone she trusted. Will anyone step up for her as she faces life or death decisions? Find out in this seven-part animated video series and story book. Buy the book and receive a free resource pack for educators.
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Tell me about the Changes in my Body
Tell Me About the Changes in My Body is a book to help children and adults have positive conversations about puberty and adolescence. Written in plain language, by Saranne Meyersfeld and Deborah Ewing, it features light-hearted illustrations, to convey key ideas and concepts. It shares facts about every aspect of puberty with positive messages about inclusion, diversity, body image and celebration of change. The book is focused on children aged 9-14 years but the content is useful for older adolescents, parents, caregivers, health and social workers, and educators. Talking about sexual development can be awkward. Not talking about it can be extremely harmful.
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Strangers in a faraway land
‘Once upon a time of fear and sorrow, the children of my village were woken suddenly in the night. We heard screaming and shouting. Our world turned upside down. Lightning and thunder came from the ground and fire came from the sky… We crossed a river to a faraway land. The grass was green and the leaves of the maize whispered our arrival…’ Deborah’s short story Strangers in a Faraway Land was selected for inclusion in the Heartlines Stories that Talk 2 collection for children aged 8-13 years in 2010. It is a fable about seeking refuge and about the experience of empathy and othering in exile. This story, like…
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Secret Celebrity
‘ ‘Fourteen-year-old Ana is brought illegally to South Africa from Mozambique. She is frightened but hopeful that she will find a job to help support her family. Instead, she finds herself imprisoned in an isolated house, forced to clean and do laundry. When she hears that she is going to be sold as a ‘wife’, Ana makes a daring escape. She befriends Zandi and her family and faces new challenges in an unfamiliar school. But when Ana goes looking for her father, and Zandi follows, they end up in worse trouble than they could ever have imagined.’ Secret Celebrity is a teen novel published by Hodder Education in 2010. It…
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Animal Health Promotion
The Mdukatshani Rural Development Project in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has been providing farmer support and training for more than 50 years. Children and young people play an important role in livestock care and Mdukatshani has developed programmes to facilitate their involvement. These started with story-telling to enable children to document their knowledge, ideas and experiences of caring for chicken, goats and cows. Over several years, bi-lingual (English and Zulu) illustrated books were co-created with the children to share these stories. The books are used in several schools in Animal Health Promotion Clubs. They support a range of learning outcomes and affirm children’s expertise in agriculture . …
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Cultural Responses to Sexual Realities
This is one of a series of research briefings produced to support advocacy for sexual and reproductive health rights by the AIDS Foundation of South Africa. Ewing co-designed the research and was the series editor in her capacity as Advocacy Manager for the programme. The research was a collaboration between activists and academics to provide evidence for interventions at community level across Eastern and Southern Africa. Research and advocacy are a strong component of work to support the Sex Rights Africa Network of civil society organisations.
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The Secret Thread: Personal journeys beyond apartheid
The Secret Thread: Personal journeys beyond apartheid, published by Unisa Press, South Africa, as part of its Hidden Histories Series, is a social history reflecting on the power of travel. The book brings together the experiences of some of the more than 300 people who received small grants to travel beyond the barriers created by apartheid, between 1964 and 1994, to see their own and other communities in a different light. The study tours were made possible by the Christian Fellowship Trust (CFT), co-founded by Dr Beyers Naudé in 1964. The CFT, a ‘legally subversive’ organisation, drove a ‘Trojan Horse’ into the citadel of apartheid theology. The CFT recognised travel…
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Planet Mouse series
Planet Mouse is a series of books about ‘Mouse’, a 12-year-old boy from Durban. Mouse faces challenges and dilemmas familiar to children around the world – such as peer pressure, crime in his neighbourhood, betrayal and unfairness. Mouse isn’t a typical hero – he is more interested in saving goals and gazing at stars than saving the world or being a star. But when trouble finds him, he finds the courage to make difficult and sometimes dangerous decisions. When My Dad Comes Home Mouse’s father is unemployed. When he gets a temporary job away from home, Mouse feels happy and sad. When his Mom gets sick, Mouse thinks that perhaps…
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Friends for Life
Friends for Life, co-authored by Deborah Ewing and Noreen Ramsden, is a reader on loss and compassion. It is one of the titles in the Pearson Junior African Readers series (JAWS). It was written especially for children experiencing or witnessing stigma related to HIV and was also published in French and Kiswahili. Beautifully illustrated by Paddy Bouma. Available through Abebooks
