In the third year of the AVBOB Road To Literacy trolley library campaign, AVBOB and Oxford University Press Southern Africa (OUPSA) have increased the partnership value aimed at transforming the lives of primary school children.
This initiative not only makes books accessible but also provides children with books in their mother tongue languages.
At an event held on Thursday 13 June at the AVBOB offices in Irene Link, Centurion, Carl van der Riet, CEO of AVBOB, and Karen Simpson, Managing Director of OUPSA, announced the beneficiaries of the 500 trolley libraries.
“The more than 7 000 nominations received this year posed a challenge for our adjudicators, as choosing outstanding motivations from the ‘best’ could not have been an easy task,” he said. On the West Coast three schools are beneficiaries – Langebaan Primary School, Porterville Primary School and Porterville Recreational Facility.
Each trolley library consists of 500 books tailored for the Caps curriculum, with an estimated value of R65 000. Each AVBOB Road To Literacy trolley library has a value of R50 000, bringing the total investment value for the 2024 initiative to R32,5m. In 2024 500 trolley libraries will be donated to deserving primary schools and educational non-profit organisations (NPOs). This marks a substantial increase from the 260 trolley libraries donated in 2023 and the 180 trolleys donated in 2022.
In his address, Van der Riet said, “the skills of literacy and numeracy are not only fundamental human rights but also means for the pursuit of other human rights. They are the foundation for achieving education and the broader goal of reducing poverty.”
He explained that AVBOB was established to help people through challenging times and has never veered from that original purpose. “We still exist for the people, and our mutual status is a cornerstone of who we are.”
Guest speaker Gugulethu Ndebele, Executive Director of Oprah Winfrey Academy for Girls (OWLAG), provided valuable insight into the importance of mother tongue reading. She praised AVBOB’s long-standing and unwavering commitment to education and emphasised that the trolley libraries are only effective if they are integrated into other teaching activities and strategies in order achieve a holistic education outcome.
Simpson from OUPSA said: “Our mission at Oxford University Press is to transform lives through learning. We believe that partnerships with like-minded organisations, such as AVBOB, are essential in realising our vision to positively impact the lives of millions of learners anytime, anywhere. Our collaboration with AVBOB has strengthened over the last three years, and we are exceptionally proud of our involvement in the 2024 Road to Literacy campaign, which supports so many deserving schools where access to the right literacy resources can make the biggest difference to learning outcomes.”
