It is such a privilege and humbling experience for all involved at the Jakes Gerwel Foundation to annually take books, school bags and a puppet show to more than 3000 learners in the Eastern Cape. We cannot travel to all – almost 20 schools without the helping hands of so many people. Our gratitude to our valued partners – Book Dash for the wonderfully homegrown books in Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa, Suidoosterfees for the help with the puppet show, Bags4Good
Jakes Gerwel Foundation www.jgf.org.za partners with Book Dash in JGF’s Books in the Hands of Children Project. From late August to early September, JGF goes on an annual road trip around the Blue Crane Route Municipality – Somerset East, Pearston, Cookhouse and Kommedagga – distributing brand new books in hardy Bags4Good school bags to 3000 little children.
Representatives from the Jakes Gerwel Foundation, Book Dash and the Gilbert Xuza Primary School
On their Facebook Page, Book Dash has this to say about their initiative: “Children in South Africa need more books, but they cost too much purchased from publishers. The cheapest books have no publisher – then the only cost is printing. So our participants do the work of publishers in a single day. After that, anyone can get print runs sponsored and put original, African storybooks into the hands of children.
“We believe every child should own a hundred books by the age of five. In South Africa, that means giving 600 million free books to children who could never afford to buy them. Every day we lose, more children grow up unable to read and write well, and to enjoy the worlds that books open up.”
Thank you to Rafiek Mammon for the play, Faizel and the stars, for Gary Naidoo, Tjoppie Ferreira and Zikhona Jacobs Mbeka who mesmerize the children with their puppets. Thank you Nompumelelo Sokoyi for your passion in driving this project.
Photographer: Gys Loubser.
Theo obtained his master’s degree in creative writing at Stellenbosch University. He has been involved with various projects in the arts before in his role as, among others, project manager of the Woordfees, advertising coordinator at NB Publishers, programme manager at the KKNK as well as at the Vrystaat Literature Festival and as executive director of the Breytenbach Centre in Wellington.
Theo is the author of two novels, Skool and Strafjaart.
