Casidra makes school children’s dreams come true

Henry David Thoreau, born in 1817, an author, poet and political activist, said, “books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations“.

Casidra donated computers and furniture to the Crystal High School in Hanover Park a year ago. The school saw the need for valuable assets and set up a modern technological library for their learners. They invited various stakeholders to assist in developing the library and some former school’s learners assisted.

On the 4th September, the school organised an official opening ceremony for the library, which was well attended by former learners (alumni), the school committee, motivational speakers from New Bullying Project, Preston Jongbloed, Casidra, R-labs, various artists including Vicky Sampson and Jonathan Robain, with Quinton Manual leading at the forefront as the programme director.

The school principal, Mr Dino Abrahams, welcomed all the guests to the event and said “I am delighted to welcome you all today to the Crystal High School for this important occasion. It is a great honour to host so many distinguished guests”.

Abrahams shared few inspirational quotes with the learners that says, “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you!”. He further quoted Mortimer Jerome Adler, an American author and philosopher born in 1902, who wrote ‘In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you’. The principal emphasized the fact that, digitally literate, it is more important to be qualitative literate than quantitative literate.

One of the motivational speakers, Preston Jongbloed, touched the hearts of many guests and learners by sharing his real life motivational story about him becoming a professional international soccer player at the age of 15. Jongbloed was born and grew up in the Cape Flats. He shared that his parents were both domestic workers and said “My parents did not earn much, as they were both cleaners. We didn’t live a luxurious life or have everything we wanted, but that didn’t stop me from pursuing my career as a soccer player. My future was in my hands”.

Another motivational speaker, Vicky Sampson, shared her life story before entertaining learners and guests with her well-known and popular song ‘My African Dream’. She encouraged the learners to take their education very seriously. Sampson said, “books are part of our everyday lives – the Bible, the Quran, a dictionary, an encyclopedia, an academic textbook or a novel, and libraries are their homes, their careers and their keepers. Therefore, make use of every opportunity.”

Abrahams said, “Let your creativity shine and may you gain as much knowledge as your mind can absorb during this, the library launch, and all the weeks, months and years that follow. Today we open a new window to the outside world”.

Libraries are an integral part of our lives and central in our school’s efforts to improve literacy and numeracy, and should be used optimally. They are an integral part of a school community and are the source of knowledge, the space where learning takes place and creativity shines.

The new model of our curriculum in South Africa is based on principles of academic freedom and high quality research. The launch of your school library is based on various stakeholders’ efforts to ensure that learners are free to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge and where learners can thrive in an atmosphere of intellectual endeavours.