Vodacom to encourage a culture of e-reading

The programme offers an innovative model whereby Vodacom seeks to advance literacy development, one of the most critical elements in the education value chain, by installing an e-reader application on 45 tablets, which will be freely available at the nine Vodacom ICT Resource Centres. This will enable learners and community members to read e-books at the centres.

Maya Makanjee, chief officer: corporate affairs of Vodacom, said: "Our aim is to use our technology to help make a difference in the communities where our customers live. Access to reading material is a major challenge in South Africa. As many learners do not have access to libraries and reading material, Vodacom, together with Read A Book SA, believes that we can help address this problem by broadening access to literacy in this way."

Lack of libraries

The tablets will be loaded with e-books in the following genres: African literature, history, business/entrepreneurship, and fiction, amongst others.

The CEO of Read A Book SA, Tebogo Ditshego, said: "According to the South African Books Development Council, only 15% of South Africans have access to a nearby library. This initiative will play a role in addressing this problem by creating access to literature for the communities around Vodacom's ICT centres nationwide. The tablets will be updated with reading material regularly to ensure that visitors have constant access to new reading material."

To encourage a culture of literacy further, visitors at the ICT Resource centres will be able to download the e-books to a memory stick or to their cellphones.

The nine provincial ICT Resource Centres are located in the following areas: