Andrea Wainer, ABCA South Africa volunteer

I work for WIZO in Johannesburg and Lauren Klevansky (ABCA South Africa Director) called me one day to ask if we work with any schools or centres that would possibly need books. Once she told me about ABCA and what she does, she had me - hook, line and sinker! I am passionate about helping and encouraging children to read, so I joined her in distributing the books she receives periodically from you. Although she does the bulk of the work and the admin to make sure everything runs smoothly here in Joburg, I help out with the fun parts - helping her decide who gets the books and going with her to hand over the books. I never tire of seeing children's excited faces when they see all the new books they can read! There is an organisation called Hooked On Books that does shows for primary school children to encourage them to read. We thought this would be a great addition to our visits to schools to give them books. We have been very fortunate to obtain sponsorships for a few shows now and the response to the shows at the schools we have been to has been phenomenal. We managed to get copies of the books in the shows for the school libraries so that the children can read them to see how the stories end. The most satisfying thing about doing this is the excitement on the faces of the children when they take a peek at the new books they have to read and a close second is the gratitude from the staff who recognise the importance of reading and work so hard to encourage their students to read.

It is quite phenomenal what you guys Down Under have achieved - I'm sure it's no small task to collect, sort and pack the books... and then obtain the funding to ship the books over the seas to Africa, not to mention the logistics and admin of it all! You are all amazing and I feel so privileged to be a small part of all of this. A huge hug of gratitude goes to Lauren as well, who tirelessly makes sure the books arrive safely at their various destinations. She's an amazing "boss"!

As an aside, one of the first places we gave books was an organisation called Dlala Nje who run a community centre in Ponte in Berea for children, who come there every day after school and in the school holidays. They help the kids with homework and do various activities every day to stimulate and educate the kids. When we delivered books there, I fell in love with the centre and have been going there twice a week ever since to have fun, help out and work with those children who are struggling with their reading. And, we are now running a reading challenge with prizes at the end of each cycle of the challenge to encourage the children to read!

May we all be blessed with the strength and tenacity to continue uplifting the children of Africa, one book at a time.

Posted December 2023

Written by Andrea Wainer