Konica Minolta South Africa, a Bidvest company, handed over a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, which has been kitted out as a mobile library, to The Edu-Care Foundation on 6 July at its offices in Johannesburg. The Edu-Care Foundation is a non-profit organisation that
through its R.E.A.D. (respect, education, attitude and discipline)
initiative assists children in the foundation phase improve their
literacy skills.
The vehicle, which also serves as a research centre, with a computer and internet, and which also stocks stationery supplies, will bring much reading material into rural communities in Gauteng, providing children who do not have access to books in their schools and communities with the opportunity to improve their literacy skills – a necessary tool to function in society, find a good job and nourish problem solving as well as the imagination.
The mobile library is the first of its kind and will service the Gauteng area, ranging from the West Rand to the East Rand and even a school in Hammanskraal, said project initiator Laetitia Coetzer, special projects manager at Konica Minolta South Africa. She added that it will also function as a study centre at certain rural area schools where there are no study facilities.
Daleen Havenga, Founder of The Edu-Care Foundation, and her team were there to receive the mobile library.
Konica Minolta South Africa has also donated a sum of money to buy books and a laptop to be used as a research facility for subjects such as history, science and geography. With the help of one of its suppliers it has also created cheerful artwork on the body of the vehicle.
The concept of a mobile library is very innovative, as it will be able to reach 20 schools in one month and will give our children a chance to excel. This is the approach our country needs – to focus on the solutions rather than the problems, said Achmat Dangor, CE, Nelson Mandela Foundation.
