Nsiwa Primary School -

KwaZulu-Natal

Jill Frow of the Family Literacy Project in KwaZulu-Natal sent us the following thank you for books donated to them through the Rotary Club of Westville:

The most recent consignment of ABCA books were taken to the Nsiwa School Library. This school is new and has been built by the Mondi Group, based in Richards Bay, working in the Siyaqhubeka Forest. The library is specifically for the school but is being regarded as a model for other libraries in other schools to follow.

It is a Primary School and caters for children from Grade R to Grade 7. There are about 600 children in the school and they all live within 10 kilometers from the school. Some of them walk to school while others go in informal taxis driven by the ‘uncles’. One or more of their parents will be employed working in the forest while others will run ‘spazas’ (small shops attached to their homes). A few parents are employed in higher paying jobs nearer the city of Richards Bay.

The previous consignment of books was distributed amongst the Family Literacy Project community libraries and box libraries. Each member of our FLP team of 11 Facilitators works in her own village and runs various children’s groups and projects. All these villages are within a few hours driving from Underberg in KwaZuluNatal. Five of the villages have formal buildings made of prefabricated material or blocks. The other facilitators have Box libraries which supply the adults and children in the community with attractive reading matter. Prizes are given for those that read even 10 books and special days are held to celebrate national and international reading days. The libraries are open every day at certain hours and are centres of stories and fun.

In addition we packed a box of the books for two neighbouring schools where we have helped establish Classroom Libraries. The school principals in these schools are particularly concerned with reading levels in their schools. The schools were Kumkane Primary in Riverside and Sibomvini Primary in Centocow. These schools are also within a few hours of driving from Underberg.

I would not be exaggerating when I say that there is an endless need for attractive children’s books in the schools and libraries where we work and serve. The only limiting factor is the transporting of the books into the rural areas. We are very aware that you have to raise a huge amount of money to ‘transport’ the books to our continent too. We greatly appreciate the hard work and dedication that goes into this and the collection of these beautiful books.

July 2024