There is huge potential to develop the Reading Toolbox Project into a viable business providing jobs and increasing skills, particularly in under-served communities.
The initial research and development have been done over the last ten years, with funding from interested individuals and organizations who see the urgent and important need to help children to read with imagination and understanding. The Red Reading Toolbox (Books and Stories) is complete. The Green Reading Toolbox and the Blue Reading Toolbox are in progress and need further investment capital to complete. We have the materials in hand for a five-year reading programme that can be utilized in many ways, including at school.
As an NPO, Children’s Book Network lacks the skills, infrastructure and capital to develop this project into a viable business. But we can provide the basic educational materials for our Reading Toolboxes to be grown into a reading upliftment project that could reach children in all of South Africa, and even beyond our borders, improving reading exponentially. The Reading Toolboxes would not only be an essential service but could also be a job creation opportunity and provide profit that could be sunk back into further development of vitally needed reading and educational skills.
We seek investment to continue the research and development. Our total funding requirements to complete the programme (12 reading themes in five Reading Toolboxes) is R1 million – some of which has already been promised. Branding of the project is possible and we look forward to finding a partner that sees the critical importance of improving the reading skills – and therefore the life opportunities – of all South Africa’s children.
Lesley Beake
Director, Children’s Book Network
+27 (0) 82 6464 420
info@childrensbook.co.za
