Caxton Local Media’s ‘novel’ idea pays dividends with handover

WHEN Caxton Local Media decided to get behind StreetLit Durban in July this year (Mandela Month), we had no idea what the extent of its success would be.

Within a week of announcing that we would be collecting books to help support StreetLit Durban, group editor Corrinne Louw’s office’s ‘Let’s be kind’ basket was filled with books.

A month later, she dropped these books at StreetLit Durban headquarters, which works out of St John Ambulance and Eye Care, 129 KE Masinga Road, and no sooner was the basket full again.

StreetLit Durban is a Denis Hurley Centre (DHC) initiative that helps a dozen homeless and formerly homeless men and women earn a basic income by selling good second-hand donated books at venues around town.

Also read: Closing the last chapter on north Durban book drive

The Denis Hurley Centre, based in Durban, which cares for the city’s poor and marginalised, has, for years, been appealing to residents to support its flagship entrepreneurship project.

“StreetLit is the Denis Hurley Centre project to help homeless people by giving them the chance to sell second-hand books. We are delighted at how well our booksellers are doing and the fact that they are all off the streets and making a living,” said the Denis Hurley Centre director, Raymond Perrier.

Donel Tombeni, who has been selling books at the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts (KZNSA) Gallery as part of StreetLit for the past two years, told me that he sells around 20 books a week. Tombeni was thrilled with the Caxton Local Media donation which gets sent to the central bookshop in St John for all book vendors to access. So, get more books rolling in.

To help Tombeni and his fellow booksellers around Durban, use these three methods to donate your good second-hand books:

– Drop them at Caxton Local Media offices: 115 Escom Road, New Germany. (We could choose you to feature in any of our six newspaper titles to tell us why you decided to get behind this fantastic initiative.)
– Contact Illa Thompson via email at books@denishurleycentre.org / 083 326 3234.
– Drop books off at St John, 129 KE Masinga Road (Old Fort Road) on Monday, Wednesday or Friday mornings between 08:00 and 10:00. Call Illa first so she can make arrangements to have vendors help to carry the books.

Also read: Parkhill resident and environmental warrior pens first book

– Support the vendors and buy quality second-hand books. You can find booksellers who are based at the following places: KZNSA Gallery; behind The Workshop; Berea Centre; Davenport Square; Botanic Gardens; Pick ’n Pay Hyper by the Sea; Bluff Towers, outside the Denis Hurley Centre; at the Playhouse/City Hall precinct; La Lucia Mall; and the Ballito Lifestyle Centre.

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