15th School Library Donated

Hyundai Automotive South Africa officially opened and handed over the 15th library and information centre in the company’s corporate social investment programme to the St Ives Primary School in Soweto on Tuesday 27 September 2022.

It was the third library handover in 2022 in collaboration with the Imperial & Motus Community Trust and Hyundai Motor Company of South Korea.

The library and information centre at St Ives Primary School in Klipspruit West, Soweto, was installed in one of the classrooms which was prepared for this purpose. The cost of the whole project, which includes the acquisition of books, computer laptops, learning aids such as a digital “white board”, and the salary of a librarian for year, amounts to R 1,62 million.

The librarian will manage the teaching programmes and support the school for five years, while training staff members at the school to take of the role of librarians after this period.

At the opening ceremony, Hyundai Automotive SA also highlighted its partnership with the Reel Gardening initiative to establish a vegetable garden at each school where a Hyundai-donated library and information centre is established. The aim of the Reel Gardening initiative is to work together to educate and employ community members to establish their own gardens.

Reel Gardening’s vegetable garden kit contains a biodegradable seed tape that can be planted straight into the ground. The tape removes the guess work and confusion of starting a vegetable garden. It contains high quality, non-chemically treated seed. The seeds are held within the tape at the correct depth and distance apart for the plants to grow.

Ilana Heradien, principal of St Ives Primary School, thanked Hyundai and the Imperial and Motus Community Trust for their involvement with education and the establishment of the library and information centre.

“I cannot wait to see the learners coming into this library and to see the change that it will bring in their lives. To create that wonderful space for them to be in, to be surrounded by books. A big reason why learners in South Africa struggle to read, is because there is a lack of resources. I have no doubt that this new library will have a huge positive impact on the lives of our learners at St Ives,” she said.

In her address to the learners of St Ives and guests at the unveiling ceremony, Meagan Alexander, senior digital brand manager at Hyundai Automotive SA, said her love for books and reading started when her mother took her to the library as a young child. “It was not easy, because we had to take two taxis to get to the library, but it was worth the effort. This new library at St Ives put the books and resources on the learners’ doorstep – they do not even have to take a taxi trip to get there,” said Alexander.