Press release: Western Cape learners rallied to read

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On Saturday, 21 October, Brand South Africa partnered with Bidvest Rally to Read and other sponsors to rally to the Western Cape in efforts to improve literacy and education in the province.

The purpose of visiting the schools was to deliver educational materials such as box libraries, school shoes, stationery, soccer balls as well as meet the learners and educators, who will benefit from the training. (Image: Supplied)

Cape Town, Friday 27 October 2017 – On Saturday, 21 October, Brand South Africa partnered with Bidvest Rally to Read and other sponsors to rally to the Western Cape in efforts to improve literacy and education in the province.

Rally to Read is an initiative that was originally launched by the McCarthy Motor Group and is now led by Bidvest, to help improve education in rural South Africa. Every year, Rally to Read travels across ten school districts, in nine provinces to distribute reading and educational resources to disadvantaged schools.

Over the years the Rally to Read has had a positive impact on the lives of many communities and schools:

• Over R91-million raised for rural education
• 1025 – schools have been on the programme since 1998
• 179 – rallies have been executed to date, covering all parts of rural South Africa (1998 – 2016)
• 54 – Different areas/school clusters have been supported
• 18 – Series of Rallies have been completed

McCarthy Toyota Table View, general manager Gary Scholtz said, “we are very proud to be part of this initiative, we have had an opportunity to travel to schools far and wide in order to positively impact the lives of many children. The rally is always received very well in the Cape. I am always very impressed with the attendance of the parents at the schools we visit”.

The purpose of visiting the schools was to deliver educational materials such as box libraries, school shoes, stationery, soccer balls as well as meet the learners and educators, who will benefit from the training.

The visits further reaffirm to the schools that they are not alone and to remind the teachers of the importance of their task at hand. Upon arrival, sponsors were welcomed by school’s pupils showing off their reading skills.

The visits further reaffirm to the schools that they are not alone and to remind the teachers of the importance of their task at hand. Upon arrival, sponsors were welcomed by school’s pupils showing off their reading skills.

“I am very happy that our school is getting all these nice things for us to carry on learning. My favourite story is Oupa se ‘bril and I like it when we act out the stories in class”, said a pupil from Noordhoek Primary.

“The Rally to read initiative is very important, I think the fact that we personally deliver to the “end user” is of vital significance to me. It’s easy to just donate money to a cause and ease your conscience, it’s another experience when you come face to face with the individual who will benefit from the sponsorship – things become very personal. Reading is essential to everyone…someone commented on the weekend that if you can’t read you can’t use a computer, public transport and many of the basics we take for granted every day”, concludes Mr Scholtz

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