STANDARD Bank employees from Graaff-Reinet and Somerset East recently provided an upgrade to the WG Olivier Primary School in Somerset East.
The work commenced on June 10, and the library upgrade was completed on June 12.
The employees volunteered their time, skill and passion to put the finishing touches to the library.
They made reading corner cushions and ottomans for the children to sit on, painted the unique tetra shelving, assembled the DIY shelving, painted wall murals, and sorted the new and exciting consignment of books and put them on the shelves.
A reading corner, especially for the little ones, was also provided by placing the mat in the corner with the ottomans and reading corner cushions.
The school principal, Mr Rittles, was extremely grateful for the library and thanked Standard Bank for choosing their school for the initiative.
Valmay Slavers from Standard Bank said that education was a key focus for Standard Bank and that she hoped that the library would assist the learners with their reading literacy.
The Standard Bank employees are encouraged to adopt the school library and revisit the school to run literacy activities, such as reading circle and comprehension days.
The CSI department of Standard Bank – making use of its employee volunteer programme, as well as an external service provider, RAK Events – has been setting up school libraries in primary schools across the country for the last three years.
The objective of the programme is to cultivate a love of reading among the learners in the foundation phase – with the aim of improving the level of literacy in those grades.
The selected school identifies an available classroom or other space that will be suitable to use to implement a library. Alternatively the school will identify three classrooms in which library corners are established.
The RAK Events team then goes into the schools to prepare the classroom for the library implementation.
The classroom is cleaned, painted and general repairs are taken care of where necessary.
Library-related wall art is drawn on to the walls and shelving is custom-made to kit out the library.
The Standard Bank employee volunteers complete the project by providing the final touches to the library or reading corners.
