East London, South Africa – Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) has partnered with the READ Educational Trust with their flagship literacy project, Rally to Read. The partnership consisted of a R3 million donation to the Rally to Read initiative by providing learner and school scripted lesson plan guides, reading material, stationery, digital literacy resources such as tablets and teacher digital literacy workshops as well as parental support resources to remote schools in the rural area of John Biseaker Circuit and Buffalo City Municipality in the Eastern Cape.
Commenting on the Rally, Andreas Brand, Chief Executive Officer of Mercedes-South Africa and Executive Director of Manufacturing said, “As a good corporate citizen, we want to contribute to the sustainable development of education and skills development. To this end, Mercedes-Benz South Africa is proud to be a part of the Rally to Read initiative as a testament to our commitment to education and the youth today, tomorrow and in the future.”
At the core of Mercedes-Benz South Africa’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy is a focus on education and community upliftment. With its manufacturing plant based in East London, MBSA has made a clear strategic commitment to continue to bolster education, skills development and employability of the youth in the communities in which it operates. The Rally to Read initiative aims to bridge the gap between rural and urban schools, providing teachers and learners access to quality resources and training to help improving the literacy levels of learners throughout South African schools.
“Over the past 25 years almost 650 000 learners have been the beneficiaries of this widely acclaimed literacy program. We are extremely grateful to MBSA for their generous support over so many years. We salute them as fellow crusaders for literacy as they are helping us to provide a bridge between hardship and hope for thousands of learners in remote rural areas,” said Brand Pretorius, Rally to Read Founder & Chairperson of Rally to Read Steering Committee.
