A BUSLOAD OF HOPE
Songs of celebration echoed over the Karkloof Valley as the pupils and staff at Yarrow Intermediate School were presented with a new library on Saturday morning.
Situated on the top level of a stationary, bright red, double decker bus, the space is furnished with pink, yellow and purple cushions and seating. It can accommodate up to 60 children from Grade R to Grade 7 at a time.
The bus was presented to the school by Absa, as part of its legacy project to empower communities through education.
Sydney Mbhele, the bank’s group chief brand, marketing and corporate affairs officer, said: “Absa aims to enable meaningful impact in the communities in which we operate.
“This legacy project at Yarrow Intermediate School is another milestone for the bank and aligns to our strategy of enhanced access to education.
“We pride ourselves on bringing possibilities to life and through this project, we aim to contribute to improving our country's literacy rate."
As part of the project, Absa will also maintain the library in the years to come.
Andrew Nicholson, chairman of the Marriott Karkloof Country Club, is delighted that the bus is finally in place.
“Absa came to the club in 2022 to hold their annual Absa Cape Epic training camp, and during this time our vision on education and shared value in the community was discussed,” he explained.
“Several months ago the club was approached by Absa with a proposal to create a library in a double decker bus for one of the schools.
“The project was planned, site meetings held and during the last week in January the project all came together.
The concrete slab that was created was also made big enough to hold the school’s kitchen and storage container.”
The library is the latest in a series of education-related projects undertaken by the club. It has previously funded the training of an early childhood development (ECD) teacher and created a toy library for pupils at Yarrow to use.
The school’s existing library, which is also used as a classroom, will be moved to the bus in February.
Mary Gray, who heads both the library and ECD projects at the school, will be working with her team to collate the books using a simple colour-coding system.
“Once the library is functional, the children will be issued with book bags and exchange books once a week,” Nicholson said.
“Mary will work with the teachers and library assistant until the system is running smoothly. Thereafter, she will monitor the functioning of the library and we will adjust as necessary.”
Gray, the Yarrow Intermediate School project coordinator, expressed her sincere gratitude to Absa for their donation.
“Children will now enjoy story time in the comfort of the stationary bus, which will also serve as a research centre for projects,” she said.
“In the future, we would like to extend the use of the library to include adults in the community. This will be for information sharing where we could invite guest speakers and share valuable information.”
The handover of the new library was attended by cyclists taking part in this year’s training camp for the Absa Cape Epic at the Karkloof Country Club.
The internationally renowned mountain-biking race takes place from March 19 to 26. Riders taking part in the eight day stage race will cover 658 gruelling kilometres with 15 775 metres of limit-testing climbing.
Also at the presentation were uMngeni Mayor, Councillor Chris Pappas, Pietermaritzburg’s world champion mountain biker, Greg Minnaar, and former Springbok, Joel Stransky.