What are you doing for International Literacy Day?

Sell Literacy bracelets in your shop to support International Literacy Day.

Blue Groove Africa is a Section 21 and NPO registered organisation. Their work benefits disadvantaged children of the black population by 100%. Their vision is to “to provide the building blocks for education, through bridged and sustainable learning, environmental and feeding facilities, with skills transfer into communities throughout South Africa”.

Blue Groove’s mission is to succeed in populating 200 new libraries by 2020 serving 500 000 children and adults.

Research has shown that there are 12.3 million learners in South Africa, served by 386 000 teachers and 26 292 schools (including 1098 registered independent or private schools). Roughly 6000 are high schools (grade 7 – 12) and the rest primary (grade 0 – 6)

Since 1994, the right to education for all has been a key legislative priority. The legacy of Apartheid created a deeply fragmented education system. Black schools, in both urban and rural areas, were left under-resourced due to the history of the education system.

Only 8% of public schools in South Africa have functional libraries, which are largely found in former Model C schools which have the resources to staff and stock these facilities. Approximately 20 000 schools in South Africa are without libraries, thereby denying learners access to regular reading opportunities. For more than two decades, international research has proven that school libraries are beneficial to progress and academic development of learners.

It has been proven that a fully functional school library improves a learner’s performance in the classroom by as much as 8%.

The provision of a well-stocked and appropriately staffed school library will aid in the development of basic reading and instil a love of reading amongst the youth.

Blue Groove Africa was recently nominated by The Bead Coalition (Pty) Ltd as the beneficiary of sales through their Literacy bracelet.

“We are extremely grateful and honoured to be associated with this organisation. Our aim through our “Right to Read” campaign is to provide 200 libraries across South Africa by 2020. We have been appointed by the South Africa Rugby Union (SARU) for a minimum of four years, as the implementing partner for their CSI project “Boks for Books” which is a perfect fit for our “right to read” campaign.” says Elise Fish, Managing Director of Blue Groove.

“Our association therefore with The Bead Company, will assist in getting all South Africans involved in the campaign to ensure that “Boks for Books” can achieve a minimum of 23 libraries per annum.

“As the implementing partner we are responsible for not only the fundraising for this project but also the physical provision of the infrastructure of the library, the stocking of books, training of librarians and library committees, public relations and marketing of campaigns that will enhance the programme as well as the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the libraries.