Online retailer Kalahari.net has teamed up with international model Minkie van der Westhuizen and You/Huisgenoot magazines to allow people to donate books to needy schools online.
The campaign is in support of World Book Day on 23 April and aims to provide much-needed books to schools, institutions and libraries that cannot afford to buy their own.
SA-born model Minkie van der Westhuizen shot to fame over the past year as the most favoured pin-up of US troops when they invaded Iraq and as the girlfriend of SA cricket captain Graeme Smith.
According to Gary Hadfield, marketing manager of Kalahari.net, the company is constantly flooded with requests for book donations and this campaign gives it the ideal opportunity to formalise this process. "We can now select a cause each month that we would like to donate books to according to where the need is the greatest."
Kalahari.net will donate books to the value of R10 000 to kick off the campaign, but will then appeal to South Africans to donate books as well to ensure that every month, a substantial number of books can donated. Van der Westhuizen, together with a team of advisers from You/Huisgenoot and Kalahari.net, will be responsible each month for selecting the organisation that will receive the books.
Anyone can nominate a school, library or institution by sending the name, contact person and types of books that are needed to Kalahari.net. The first phase of the campaign will run until October, with the first donation to be made in May.
To donate a book, visit Van der Westhuizen`s project section on www.kalahari.net and buy a book, which will then be sent direct to the selected organisation.
Second-hand books can also be donated, either by arranging for Kalahari.net`s courier, BeDirect, to collect them at the donor`s expense, or by dropping them off at collection points.
Books can be dropped off at the Naspers building in Cape Town, the M-Web/Kalahari.net building in Parow, Boekehuis in Auckland Park, the You/Huisgenoot offices in Sandton, or Van Schaik Book Shop in Hatfield, Pretoria.
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