On Saturday, 4 March, 16 schools in the Buffalo City region received school supplies at the annual Rally to Read, an initiative sponsored by Mercedes-Benz and the READ Educational Trust.
The chosen schools are located in the rural areas of Needs Camp, Tsholomnqa, and Phumlani Location. Each school received educational materials, box libraries, and teacher support resources worth R3m.
The aim of the Rally to Read initiative is to address the educational challenges faced in these communities and bridge the gap between rural and urban schools, by providing teachers and learners with access to quality resources and training and hopefully help improve literacy levels.
Andreas Brand, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, maintains that this project will focus on education and community uplifting.
“As a good corporate citizen, we want to contribute to the sustainable development of education and skills development.
“To this end, Mercedes-Benz South Africa is proud to be a part of the Rally to Read initiative as a testament to our commitment to education and the youth today, tomorrow, and in the future,” Brand said.
Mercedes-Benz has been involved with the Rally to Read project for over 25 years, and according to Rally to Read founder, Brand Pretorius, this partnership has helped many learners.
“Over the past 25 years, almost 650,000 learners have been the beneficiaries of this widely acclaimed literacy programme. We are extremely grateful to Mercedes-Benz South Africa for their generous support over so many years. We salute them as fellow crusaders for literacy as they are helping us to provide a bridge between hardship and hope for thousands of learners in remote rural areas,” said Pretorius.
Mercedes-Benz has focused largely on uplifting education and the community, especially in the East London region, where the manufacturing plant is based. With this initiative, they aim to deliver books, teaching aids, educational equipment and toys, and other much-needed resources needed by the schools.
