“Since READATHON has been running successfully for 23 years, it’s difficult to think of an encore,” says Innocentia Buthelezi, Group CSI Manager for Edcon. The CNA Readathon 2011 campaign theme was The more you read, the more you know. “This really resonated with all involved – especially the 13 million South African children desperate for knowledge, making this campaign one of the most successful yet,” she added.
The value of the annual CNA Readathon cannot be underestimated. South Africa ranks 108th out of 178 countries and illiteracy costs the country R550 billion a year in income and GDP. While the functional literacy in SA is a high 85% (UNESCO), reading and writing skills are those of a nine-year-old, which is totally inadequate for today’s knowledge-centred economy.
In its annual drive to combat our country’s illiteracy, the 2011 CNA Readathon ran from June 22 until September 30, with major highlights coinciding with SA’s literacy week (Sep 5 to 11) and International Literacy Day (Sep 8). A vital aspect was the distribution of reading material and Teachers’ Handbooks to 26 000 schools, 330 000 educators and 13 million scholars.
To provide much-needed books for school libraries, CNA additionally donated a percentage of the August and September sales from their book titles on the recommended book list. This yielded a significant and generous R32 100,00! To get the ball rolling, this money will be used specifically for:
* Contributing much needed resources to Keleketla! Library in Johannesburg’s inner city
* Creating an inspired original new community library called The Street Corner Library in Pimville run from a container
* The Zandile Primary School in the Malelaan Circuit, Mpumalanga, will have its empty library shelves filled with books, at last
An exciting innovation in last year’s CNA Readathon campaign was the promotion of book clubs in schools to generate a love of reading. There was also an inter-school competition, the winner being the school with the highest culture of reading. A separate aspect of the competition was journal writing, for which one thousand blank journals were given out, the objective being to encourage learners to express themselves meaningfully.
“Because we believe in the philosophy that everyone has a right to literacy, sponsorship of the Readathon is a natural part of our CSI programme,” Innocentia Buthelezi maintains, “and we’re delighted that last year both Reading Matters, which falls under the READ umbrella, and Clyson Printers joined us as sponsors. Their involvement contributed considerably.”
