Retail News South Africa

Online retailer launches book project

Following the success of its book project with Minki van der Westhuizen, online retailer kalahari.net has announced the launch of a new book project in conjunction with MySchool, a leading community support and fundraising programme. This project aims to donate as many books as possible to a disadvantaged school every quarter, over the next 12 months.

"Although our business stretches over various product categories, books have always been a major part of our business. Through this project, we would like to show our commitment to assist in getting South African children reading. We know that development is directly related to the ability to read and thus key to the future of our children; we want to help wherever we can by supplying books to schools that do not have the means to buy their own," says Gary Hadfield, CEO of kalahari.net.

According to MySchool, a great number of the schools that form part of the MySchool network do not have a library or shelf space for books. By involving the national MySchool partner network in various projects such as this book drive, MySchool is facilitating even greater assistance for the schools that need it most.

When visiting kalahari.net, customers (and anyone that wants to become involved in this project) can go to the book shop and click the book project button. This page gives all the information on the school that will receive books in each donation. kalahari.net has a selection of books that are relevant to the school to which you can make your donation. Customers can simply add a book from this selection to their baskets and select 'kalahari.net Book Project' as the delivery address. Postage on these orders will be free of charge for customers. Once every three months, kalahari.net and MySchool will do a handover to the chosen school.

"kalahari.net will supplement the book donation as far as possible maximising the number of books donated each quarter. We believe in making a significant impact in a focused area and want to ask our customers to support us by making a difference where it matters," said Hadfield.

The first school that will benefit from the project is Sophumelela Secondary School in Phillipi, Cape Town. For more information and to donate a book to this school, visit www.kalahari.net or www.myschool.co.za.

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