The Bookery, an organisation dedicated to instilling a love of reading in students, is embarking on a mission to raise R1 million for children’s books in honour of Mandela Day.
The Bookery establishes dynamic school libraries that inspire young minds to love reading. It seeks to create nurturing environments where children can explore the wonders of storytelling and unleash their imaginations by curating engaging collections of books for school libraries.
Since its inception in 2010, the Bookery has established over 92 school libraries across the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng. A team of professional librarians assists them in maintaining an up-to-date stock of reference, non-fiction and fiction books. The Bookery gives each learner at least three books that have been carefully chosen to meet their needs and interests.
According to News24, the organisation is currently on a mission to raise R1 million in honour of Mandela Day, which is observed on July 18 each year, to purchase books for learners from disadvantaged communities across South Africa.
The organisation’s fundraising and communications officer, Zulfa Buziek, says: ‘We are hoping to raise R1 million to purchase books in the mother tongue of our learners. One of the biggest requests from our libraries is for books in the mother tongue. It is very expensive to source books in the mother tongues.’
She claims that children enjoy reading and hearing stories that are relevant to them, telling News24 that if students do not understand what they are reading, they are not reading, regardless of how well they can say the words on the page.
‘Understanding is at the heart of reading; children need to read stories in their home language. They can then concentrate completely on the flow of the story instead of struggling to understand a language they don’t know well yet,’ she says.
According to Buziek, the books will be distributed to schools chosen from their database. These carefully curated book collections will be delivered to multiple underprivileged and underresourced schools in areas such as Soweto, Cape Flats, Diepsloot, Gqerberha and Khayelitsha.
Buziek is appealing to individuals, corporations and organisations to join them in their cause.
‘We are asking people to donate, share the appeal on their social media platforms, and help The Bookery reach the target,’ she says.
If you’d like to help, visit the organisation’s website.
Shared by Cape ETC.
ALSO SEE:
SA women’s gymnastics team bags gold and qualifies for World Champs
Feature Image: The Bookery / Facebook
