Mr Stephan Erasmus,Managing Director: Van Schaik book store; Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata, Executive Director: Unisa Library; Prof Mandla Makhanya, Pro-Vice-Chancellor; and Mr Desmond Fillis, Secretary-General: National Commission for Unesco celebrating World Literacy Day |
Books are there to be read --- otherwise how do we understand the world we live in? Celebrating World Literacy Day with a generous donation of R5 million worth of books from Van Schaik's book store, Prof Mandla Makhanya, Unisa's Pro-Vice-Chancellor, said that "reading is important so that we can understand the democracy in which we live."
He said that in addition to books being used by undergraduate and postgraduate students, scholars from other institutions and researchers, books also offer a form of recreation and should be used as such.
The donation from Van Schaiks will be be fiercely guarded and put to good use.
Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata, the Executive Director of the Library, in welcoming the guests said this was a most exciting event to happen on World Literacy Day. “The more books the merrier,” she jokingly said. The partnership with Van Schaiks assists Unisa in its mandate to provide access to learning. There has long been a collaboration with them which would hopefully continue into the future.
Mr Stephan Erasmus, Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata and Prof Mandla Makhanya | |
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Mr Stephan Erasmus, Managing Director, Van Schaik Bookstore said they were honoured to be associated with a university such as Unisa. The donation was being made in recognition of the valuable work this institution was doing.
Mr Desmond Fillis, Director: Multilateral Affairs – International Relations and Secretary-General: National Commission for UNESCO, read out a message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of Unisa in which he said that today’s gravest health concerns cannot be adequately addressed unless literacy finds a central place in public health policies and strategies.
“An illiterate person is simply more vulnerable to ill-health, and less likely to seek medical help for themselves, their family or their community. Nearly 10 million children die before reaching age 5, most often of preventable infectious diseases…….Women with post primary education are five times more likely than illiterate women to know facts about HIV and Aids."
"This is why the Millennium Development Goals directly or indirectly related to health – eradicating extreme poverty, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV and malaria – cannot be reached without a literacy dimension." |
