In June 2025, we opened a library at the Vhulakanjhani Primary School in the rural farming community of Malubana Village in the Limpopo region of South Africa.
The school has approximately 900 students in grades K-7 with class sizes sometimes ballooning to more than 50. The school is in a remote, under-resourced and heavily agricultural area of South Africa and most students’ parents work in the nearby citrus fields.
We partnered with Breadline Africa to provide a stand-alone 45m2 pre-fabricated library building. With the support of a full-time librarian and backing from community members, the library is seen both as a commitment to literacy and an after-school safe haven.
We collected and transported more than 2,000 English books tailored to student reading levels and partnered with African Folktales for Kids and African Storybook to print and provide more than 400 Xitsonga books.
We also partnered with OneSight Africa to conduct free vision testing and those students that needed glasses were provided with their glasses at the library opening. We're excited to use AI literacy assessments to track student progress.
