Give them a sporting chance!

Have you been reading the reports about the triumphant rugby Springboks in France? Or about the remarkable performance of the cricket Proteas in India? If so, you’re lucky. Millions of your fellow South Africans haven’t. For them, the ability to read — or write — is a distant dream. 

While many of them are no doubt proud of their national teams, these successes make no tangible difference to life in remote rural communities, impoverished townships and squatter camps. Nor will President Cyril Ramaphos’s declaration of a public holiday on December 15. A holiday from what? Illiteracy doesn’t open up many job opportunities. 

Fortunately, there is a growing number of companies and individuals determined to offer a brighter, literate future. Under the banner of Rally To Read, the education upliftment programme that is 25 years old in 2023, they are providing thousands of children with the opportunity of a proper education. Since 1988, the programme has directly affected hundreds of schools, thousands of teachers and nearly 800,000 children. 

In 2022 the programme raised a record R11m, which was spent this year on underresourced primary schools in Gauteng, the Free State, the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. In 2023, our fundraising bar has been set even higher, allowing us to support more schools in 2024 and, if possible, to reach into more provinces. 

We also want to win back individual sponsors. In recent years most rallies have been single-sponsor events, supported by one company and its guests. We want to return some rallies to the old format, attended by multiple corporate and private sponsors. We have at least four of these events planned for coming months. Final dates for rallies have still to be confirmed. 

So why should you support Rally To Read, in which the FM is an organising partner? Because it’s unique. Unlike most social programmes, where you hand over your money and hope it’s well spent, Rally To Read lets you see for yourself what happens to it. Sponsors are invited to join us on journeys to visit the schools they are supporting and to meet the children, teachers, families and communities that benefit. 

On these journeys we deliver portable classroom libraries packed with colourful books for classroom and private reading, as well as stationery and sports equipment. Some sponsors provide additional gifts, like school shoes for all learners. In addition, teachers at all our schools receive updated training from South Africa’s leading educational NGO, the Read Educational Trust. The trust also monitors the academic progress of children.  

Each school is supported for at least three years, allowing a culture of reading and writing to take hold. For sponsors who stay with us over that period, there is the additional pleasure of seeing how children’s literacy skills and self-confidence develop year by year. 

In its early years Rally To Read limited its activities to remote rural schools, where the average 14-year-old primary-school child has a reading age of seven, rendering them incapable of progressing to high school. Rally To Read schools bridge that gap. As it becomes apparent that many of the same challenges exist closer to urban areas, some rallies now take in townships and informal settlements. 

Confirmed sponsors for 2024 rallies include Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Investec, Shell, Netstar and Bidfood. In addition the Jonsson Foundation, the social investment arm of the Jonsson Workwear Group and a long-time Rally supporter, has agreed to become lead partner and underwrite costs of our multidonor events. 

For more information, or to become a sponsor, visit www.rallytoread.org.za