The Otto Foundation aims to improve early literacy by fostering a love of reading, promoting access to books, and developing and promoting contextually relevant books for South African children. We manage libraries and reading programmes at a cluster of schools in District Six, Cape Town. Our mission is to deepen the culture of reading in schools and school communities.

Learners are more likely to read for pleasure when they:

• Have access to a diverse and interesting books;
• Have choice in what they are reading (self-directed reading journey);
• Have role models that demonstrate a passion for reading;
• Are motivated to read in an environment where reading is encouraged and valued; and
• Have safe, comfortable spaces to read.

The Otto Foundation's school libraries and library programmes are designed to touch on all of these elements of raising a new generation of leaders.