Monash South Africa launches book drive for Mandela Day
RUIMSIG - Monash South Africa collected almost 3 000kg of books for under-resourced schools as part of its Mandela Month Book Drive
Monash South Africa’s Mandela Month Book Drive was launched on 11 July at its campus in Rumisig, in partnership with Spell It and Nedbank Capital.
According to Monash South Africa’s community engagement manager Craig Rowe, the aim is to help more children in under-resourced schools have the joy of owning books.
He added that in order to commemorate the legacy of the well-loved leader, the institution decided to embark on a month-long book drive with the aim of collecting thousands of books for local communities.
He also said Monash South Africa believes that access to education empowers and enables children and youth, while having a lasting positive impact on pupils and the communities wherein they serve.
Rowe said both staff and students of Monash South Africa share their skills and time with the community regularly.
“We are especially proud that the Mandela Month Book Drive grew from a project of Monash student Oliver Moraes, who visited our campus on an exchange programme from Australia in 2012. His generous efforts helped collect nearly 3 000kg of books from friends and businesses, estimated to total about 8 000 books,” said chief executive officer of Monash South Africa, Esther Benjamin.
“This year on Mandela Day, 18 July, we will be delivering packs of books to Early Childhood Development centres in Zandspruit. Additional bags of books will be delivered to public schools in our area when they re-open after school holidays,” she said.
“Community engagement is an important part of the learning experience as we firmly believe it is important that our students have a well-rounded and holistic education. In the first half of 2014 alone, our students volunteered more than 2 700 hours,” added Benjamin.
“The book drive is one of the many initiatives led by students for other students and Monash South Africa has called on its education partners to embark on similar initiatives at their schools. We believe that access to education can and should empower and enable our students, having a lasting positive impact on them and on the communities we serve. Our students grow as leaders and benefit themselves as they develop important skills-set sought after by employers such as leadership, communication, and project management.”
Among the speakers at the book launch was Thami Ngubeni, who is the winner of the Best TV Talk Show for Life With Thami at the 2014 SA Film and TV Awards.
