Staff members of “K” Line South Africa spent their time, some half day and some even extending to two days, during the period 4 to 7 July at the SA Container Depot, Durban Seaport, sorting out English children’s books collected by Sony in the USA and Dubai.
“K” Line container ships carried the books to Durban and the staff at their Durban office happily donated their time as their contribution towards the 67 minutes of community service on Mandela Day, Monday 18 July 2016.
The 2,940 children books collected will be donated to the KZN Department of Education to supplement their Mobile Libraries. “K” Line are delighted that primary school learners will enjoy reading the books while at the same time improving their reading capabilities.
KZN Dept. of Education currently operates 13 Mobile Library vehicles donated from Japan and offer a service to schools without libraries. The KZN Department of Education welcomes the donation made possible by “K” Line and Sony’s global ongoing efforts to collect children’s books for South Africa.
SAPESI (South African Primary Education Support Initiative), a local NPO, established by both South African and Japanese businessmen in 2006, has been donating low-mileage second-hand mobile library vehicles from Japan to provincial Departments of Education.
Continued assistance is offered wards to ensure the smooth operation of 49 mobile libraries currently deployed in all nine provinces. This project sends children’s books to rural schools without libraries to assist with the improvement of literacy in those schools.
SAPESI subscribes to the words of Mr. Mandela: education is the strongest tool to change the society, and today’s readers will become tomorrow’s leaders.
Sony Corporation, the key SAPESI partner, introduced this initiative to ten companies in English speaking countries such as Australia, UK, and the USA, to collect children’s books from their employees, business associates and communities.
Since 2010 “K” Line, as one of the major global major shipping companies, has been providing free container services between the countries where Sony companies collect the books and South Africa.