Join these Mandela Day Literacy and Book Drives

On Thursday, 18 July, South Africans will be putting in their 67 Minutes for Good once more as we commemorate Tata Nelson Mandela’s birthday by celebrating Mandela Day.

If the day has crept up on you and you have no prospects of charitable service to participate in, we’ve got your back!

Here are 5 literacy-related projects that need your support in one way or another:

Siyafunda Donate-A-Book

Join Siyafunda Donate-a-Book and Kaya FM in collecting 670 books for Nka Thuto Primary School in Soweto.

The school is known for its good reading culture and has seen learners enter a number of reading competitions. In order to support and help grow this, Kaya Cares will be donating a library container full of books and computers.

If you’d like to participate, you can donate a book (or 10) by delivering it/them at one of the following drop-off points in Pretoria or Johannesburg:

• Pretoria, Brooklyn Mall, Centre Management Offices
• Skoobs theatre of books, Montecasino
• Love books, Melville, Johannesburg
• Bridge books, Johannesburg CBD
• Exclusive Books, Rosebank Mall
• Kaya FM Offices, 195 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North

Visit the Kaya FM website to find out more.

​AFRICAN SUN MeDIA Book Drive

Those living in or around Stellenbosch, can participate in AFRICAN SUN MeDIA’s Mandela Day book drive by donating old and newbooks for readers aged 7-18.

The campaign is running until 12 August 2019. Black bins have been placed at AFRICAN SUN MeDIA’s offices in Admin A on Campus.

They are looking for books in the following categories:

• Children’s literature
• Young Adult books
• Dictionaries
• Colouring books
• Picture books
• Books that aid in learning to read/write/count
• Stationery

All proceeds will be donated to a number of underprivileged schools and communities in the Stellenbosch area.

Visit the Stellenbosch University website for more information.

Future Africa Book Drive

Future Africa – an initiative of the University of Pretoria to develop leadership in transdisciplinary research in Africa – is running a Book Drive themed: “Read a book for a Child and Educate Every Child” till the end of July 2019. 

They are looking for new and used reading books for children aged 6-8 years. These can be dropped off at any the University of Pretoria campuses at the following locations:

• Humanities lobby
• Law
• FABI
• Consumer Sciences
• Agricultural Annex
• Merensky Library
• Natural Sciences Building
• EMS Building
• HPC
• Health Sciences Library

Future Africa also hopes the drive will help create awareness and revive the culture of reading to children in our communities. 

Find out more by visiting the Future Africa website.

67 Minutes with Help2Read

Help2Read, a child literacy organisation working in the Western Cape and Gauteng has called for volunteers to join them in reading to primary school children in Cape Town and Johannesburg for 67 minutes on Mandela Day.

If you’re interested, but not sure how to go about it, give them a call on 079 615 1633 or send an email to info@help2read.org. Alternatively, you can donate R67 to the organisation.

Visit the Help2Read Facebook page to find out more.

Donate R67 to the Amy Foundation Literacy programme

If you’ve already committed 67 minutes of your time elsewhere, but have some extra cash in your pocket, why not consider donating R67 per month for 12 months to the Amy Foundation’s Literacy program?

The Literacy Programme supports the advancement of literacy levels among pre-school and primary school students. It includes the Foundation Phase for grades R-3 and the Intermediate Phase for grades 4-7. The programme runs in our two after school centres from 15h30 to 17h00 every week Monday – Thursday after school. These programmes aim to develop a culture and love for reading.

Visit Backabudy to make your donation.