Monash South Africa empowers students and learners through Mandela Day campaign

Mandela Month in 2014 will be particularly important as it will be the first year Nelson Mandela’s legacy is honoured without his presence.

To commemorate the legacy of the well-loved leader, Monash South Africa has embarked on a month long book drive with the aim of collecting thousands of books for the local communities.

Monash South Africa’s Mandela Month Book Drive, which was launched today at its campus in Ruimsig, Johannesburg in partnership with Spell It and Nedbank Capital, aims to help more children in under resourced schools have the joy of owning their own books.
 
Monash South Africa believes that access to education empowers and enables children and youth while having a lasting positive impact on learners and the communities wherein they serve, both staff and students share their skills and time with the community regularly.
 
“We’re especially proud that the Mandela Month Book Drive grew from a project of Monash student Oliver Moraes, who visited our campus on an exchange programme from Australia in 2012. His efforts helped collect nearly 3000 kg of books from friends and businesses, estimated to total about 8 000 books,” CEO of Monash South Africa Esther Benjamin.
 
“This year on Mandela Day, 18 July, we will be delivering packs of books to Early Childhood Development centres in Zandspruit. More bags of books will be delivered to public schools in our area when they reopen after school holidays,” she said.
 
In 2013, Monash South Africa became part of the Laureate International Universities network, which has a presence in 29 countries, serving more than 850 000 students globally. The mission of all Laureate institutions is to be ‘Here For Good’, with regards to both permanence and purpose.
 
“We believe that access to education can and should empower and enable our students, having a lasting positive impact on them and on the communities we serve. Our students grow as leaders and benefit themselves as they develop important skills-set sought after by employers such as leadership, communication, time-management, project management and budgets” added Benjamin.
 
“Community engagement is an important part of the learning experience as we firmly believe it is important that our students have a well-rounded and holistic education. In the first half of 2014 alone, our students volunteered more than 2 700 hours,” says Benjamin. The book drive is one of the many initiatives led by students for other students and Monash South Africa has called on its education partners to embark on a similar exercise at their schools.
 
Monash South Africa has been in existence in Johannesburg since 2001 and currently has over 4000 students studying in 4 schools – Business and Economics, Health Sciences, Information Technology and Social Science. The institution also offers a foundation programme, The Higher Certificate in Higher Education Studies, which is a one-year programme designed as a pathway to an undergraduate degree.

Monash South Africa empowers students and learners through Mandela Day campaign
 
Academic innovation is a hall-mark of Monash South Africa which aims to set new bars of excellence through its programmes. The institution has become the first in South Africa to offer a mid-year intake, which enables students to commence their degree in July. This means students do not need to wait for 2015 to start their degree.
 
During the semester’s orientation week, new students will be invited to sign up for Community Engagement projects. As part of the Mandela Month initiative, Monash South Africa will partner with four under-resourced schools in Zandspruit, Diepsloot and Cosmo City. Volunteers will read to pupils, stack books in libraries, clean and refurbish desks, and dig drainage canals on sports fields.
 
Follow the Monash South Africa Mandela Month Book Drive and Community Engagement Projects on social media by searching #MonashSA and #Hereforgood.
 
About - Monash South Africa:
 
Monash South Africa is a campus of Monash University, Australia and a registered private higher education institution with the national Department of Higher Education and Training in South Africa (Registration number 2000/HE10/002).  
In 2013, Monash South Africa became part of the Laureate International Universities network, which has a presence in 29 countries serving over 850,000 students globally.
 
Monash South Africa has a goal to be the leading private higher education institution in South Africa. Our mission is to make quality higher education accessible and delivered through an innovative environment for learning that is culturally diverse and career-oriented with a global perspective.
 
Since opening our doors in 2001, Monash South Africa has produced over 3000 graduates with internationally-recognised degrees from our four schools: Business and Economics, Health Sciences, Information Technology and Social Science. Our flagship foundation programme, the Higher Certificate in Higher Education Studies, is a one-year programme designed as a pathway to an undergraduate degree.