About us

Biblionef SA was established in August 1998 as a result of the conviction that literacy and education will be of prime importance to guarantee the success of the new South Africa. Its aim is to promote reading in disadvantaged communities. Biblionef firmly believes that all children should have the right to develop themselves in their home language. Our focus is to support under-resourced children with new, high-quality storybooks in our 11 official languages, including books in Braille. 

Being literate means having the ability to understand and use those written language forms required by society and valued by the individual. Illiteracy has a direct relation with poverty and limited educational opportunities. The most useful approach to improving literacy in South Africa is through the primary education system.

By donating books, Biblionef is supporting schools in making resources freely available by helping to develop libraries and resource centres. Biblionef aims to develop a love for reading resulting in higher literacy rates. Biblionef has its office at the SASNEV building in the heart of Pinelands, Cape Town and is headed by Executive Director Mrs. Jean Williams.

Biblionef International
Biblionef South Africa is part of an international network of 5 Biblionef organisations in Suriname, the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders) and France.
Read more ..

Origin
The founder of Biblionef, Max Vegelin van Claerbergen, was Dutch ambassador in Suriname in the early 1980's. He says: "The idea behind Biblionef arose when I met children who were living in the slums of dirty towns or isolated in huts deep down in the jungle. These children want to live and they want to read. They lack practically everything... and especially books. Through this confrontation a dream was born." In total all the Biblionef organisations have to date distributed over 3.5 million children's books to schools, hospitals, orphanages and library projects.

The name Biblionef
"Biblio" originates from Latin and means ‘having to do with books, source of knowledge, development and discovery'. "Nef" is the old French word for ‘ship, or the link between the continents and symbol of adventure'. This also denotes precisely what Biblionef wants to be: the link between the various countries in the domain of books, as a source of knowledge and development.