Thanks to our Funder, the Fulton Trust, we have been able to give 1030 children access to new home language books and educational toys! Situated in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, is Merlewood Primary School; the beneficiary this project.

We were able to provide this school with a crucial injection of isiZulu, Afrikaans and English books and an Encyclopaedia Britannica. With this project, Merlewood Primary School also received a much needed donation of educational toys for their grade R learners to help develop their motor skills prior to learning to read.

Approximately 80% of the learners are isiZulu speakers and the remaining learners are Afrikaans and English speaking. This donation was greatly needed by the educators and learners of Merlewood Primary School. When writing to us for a donation, the school’s principal reported that the majority of the storybooks in the school’s library were in English, with only 8 storybooks in isiZulu and 20 storybooks in Afrikaans. The amount of home language storybooks was extremely low and did not allow learners to experience reading for enjoyment in their own language.

The children of Merlewood Primary now have access to a bigger variety of home language storybooks and the educators and learners were extremely excited about receiving the books and toys during the handover on the 5th March 2015.