Staff of Key Recruitment in Woodstock, Cape Town, have decided to put back something into the community surrounding their offices by volunteering with the organisation help2read – for half an hour twice a week, helping children at nearby Mountain Road Primary who are struggling with their reading.

 

According to help2read co-ordinator, Marielle Moss, the organisation’s aim is to make reading fun. “We help children love books. We recruit volunteer English speakers and train them in paired reading techniques. Our volunteers help the same child twice a week for one year, so children get priceless, long term, one-on-one care and support.

 

“We give each volunteer a box full of every type of book, from African tales to fairy tales, sticker books to pop-up books, fiction to non fiction, science books to poetry, puzzles, jokes and games too, and children can choose to spend the half hour however they like. Children quickly find a book they love and learn to love reading,” said Moss.

 

MD of Key Recruitment, Allan Pike, has always had a good social responsibility programme in place – encouraging his 10 staff members to get involved on a quarterly basis, assisting a non-profit project for a whole day – such as building a house for Habitat for Humanity.

 

Office manager Belinda Rigby felt that some of the staff would be interested in a more ongoing form of volunteering, in addition to these valuable quarterly contributions. She got in touch with the GreaterGood SA website through a friend’s suggestion, and discovered that help2read were looking for volunteers.

 

Following a meeting with help2read’s Moss, five of the Key staff members have committed themselves to helping out a particular child at the nearby school, twice each week. “Many of our staff are already involved in one way or another, for example, at church”, said Rigby. “I think people will get a sense of satisfaction and purpose from helping these children on a regular basis.”

 

Because Mountain Road Primary School is close by, staff can get there, spend half an hour with a child, and be back at their desks – all within their lunch hour. “It will be a much better use of our lunch hour than just surfing the Internet!” quipped Rigby.

 

The Key Recruitment volunteers will be doing a training session with help2read this month, and are eager to meet the children and get started. “Everyone is really keen,” said Rigby. “We don’t anticipate too many problems, especially since it’s just around the corner!”