A funding appeal without the number 19 in it!
Instead, we would like to invite you to join the Children’s Book Network Thousand Club.
The past weeks have been a time of coming to terms with a changed reality. We know that, when we wake up again out of lockdown, things are going to be a lot different.
Our purpose and drive for the last eight years has not changed direction. Now, more than ever, children need the comfort and solace of stories, the access to the other worlds of non-fiction. They need books and they need reading.
The small CBN team immediately started on a turn-around strategy. In fact, our last physical meeting before lockdown was to decide what we could best do to continue our work and reach as many children as possible.
What we have done:
– We began a programme – Read at Home – with its own special button in the top right-hand corner of our website. Already there are four weeks of structured reading and activities that home carers can access while children are not at school. See our Read at Home materials here: https://www.childrensbook.co.za/read-at-home
– We are developing a package of materials that will go out to our own communities of children in Stanford South and the informal settlement at De Kop. This will include reading material, stationery and teaching materials for our community facilitator, Vuyo Lose. The first of these will be delivered to a hundred children by May 10th and we hope to continue the programme for at least eight weeks. You can view the booklet we’ve created for week one here: https://www.childrensbook.co.za/news/2020/05/05/cbn-lockdown-learning-week-1-booklet
What we need:
– Funding to continue these projects. We need to pay the three part-time people who make CBN happen – Lesley, Lisa and Wilien. We need to pay Vuyo out there in her community. None of us are in a position to do this work entirely voluntarily.
– Funding for the running costs of all businesses and NGOs. (Rental, communications, website design, printer cartridges – a list most of us are familiar with.)
– Funding for the future, to ensure that we can continue to supply books and materials until such time as we can resume workshops again.
– We have a funding appeal already on our website. This is an emergency addition in an extraordinary situation. We ask anyone who can to send us 1000 of their currency, whatever it is. The current rate of exchange means that this amount will be significant in the beleaguered rand. Groups of people could club together to achieve the magic number. Full acknowledgement will be given on our Funder’s page.
Donations can be made through GivenGain or directly to our bank account.
Bank account details:
Account Name: The Children’s Book Network Trust
First National Bank: Tokai Branch
Branch number: 200409
Account Number: 625 70 830 458 (Cheque account)
Swift code FIRNZAJJ
GivenGain:
GivenGain is a safe and effective way to transfer funds internationally. Click here to see Children’s Book Network’s profile on GivenGain: https://www.givengain.com/cause/7204/
If you would like to see our full funding proposal and budget, please click here: https://www.childrensbook.co.za/news/2020/03/20/cbn-funding-proposal-2020
