The Foundation’s Executive Director Wes MacVicar was recently in South Africa capturing the story of how surplus educational goods from Southwestern Ontario are making an impact on schoolchildren in the Country’s rural areas.
See an album with some of his photos:
A documentary about this Global Literacy Project is being created by MacVicar and media specialist Adam Sipione of the Avon Maitland District School Board and will be launched in June.
Founded by The Rotary Club of Grand Bend and facilitated in South Africa by the Middelburg Rotary Club, the Global Literacy Project partnership aims to benefit as many children as they can by providing books to read, equipment to use and to create favourable educational environments in needy schools.
Explained simply, the Grand Bend Rotary Club takes no longer needed surplus from area school boards and sends it via shipping containers to the Middelburg Rotary Club who then distributes the goods over thousands of kilometres throughout rural South Africa.
It is estimated that in the next two years 600 schools will close in the province of Ontario.
From Avon Maitland District School Board website:
In recent years we have witnessed the opening of state of the art new schools in the district. Inevitably however, the opening of a new school brings with it the closing of another as schools with declining enrollment and deteriorating structures are consolidated into new more modern facilities. As these new schools are constructed, new desks and other equipment are ordered to meet the needs of the student of today. The old schools are shuttered, sold, and in some cases demolished leaving behind the former contents now considered obsolete. What happens with all of the old furnishings and provisions that get left behind? They could easily end up in a land fill or a scrap yard, unless you have schools boards and service clubs like the Rotary Club of Grand Bend working together to do something truly extraordinary.
The cost of shipping one container to South Africa is approx. $5500. Two more are planned for the Spring but funds are needed to make this a reality.
Please consider how you might help the Rotary keep filling the need.
Provided by Fund-Raising-Ideas-Center.com
Donations can also be received by way of cheque to:
Foundation For Education, 62 Chalk St. North, Seaforth ON N0K 1W0