Rotary books make their way to South Africa

The Chisago Lakes Rotary recently teamed with Pearson Foundation, an arm of a publishing company, to provide educational books to schools in South Africa and word is the shipment arrived in tact. The Rotary titled the local books effort “Join Us on Our Journey,” and Rotary members wanted to share the thoughts of one of the book program’s coordinators, Ian Fihla, of Knysna, South Africa upon the receipt of this tremendous gift.

Fihla states in his e-mail that 2,000 books arrived and “...through the Chisago Lakes Rotary Club contribution, you have opened the doors of learning for those children... (the end of May) marked the inauguration of the fifth democratically elected president of the Republic of South Africa. The country has been liberated but the mindset of the people is not yet liberated. “It is through learning that their mindset will be liberated and they can think and make informed decisions.” He states the children will be the country’s leaders and through education, “...they will prosper and break the chains of poverty. Most of their parents never got an opportunity to get formal education and they want their children to be educated.”

The e mail goes on to say to all those who have contributed in making this possible, “...you had to go out of your way, use your own finances and equipment to make sure the project is successful. Sometimes you got frustrated ...but you persevered...when I visit the schools I would like to get some pictures of the children making use of the books and forward them to you.” Fihla concludes with, “...pass my sincere thanks to all who have participated in this historic and highly valuable donation...keep up the good work. May God bless you abundantly.”