A North West teenager has launched a civic campaign that has caught the eye of Mark Shuttleworth's HIP2B² initiative.

Refilwe Mothawanazi, 16, is lobbying her local mayor at the Tlokwe Municipality to build libraries in her township so that school children have a safe place to study.

The grade 10 pupil from BA Seobi Secondary School in Ikageng said in some cases pupils walk for an hour to get to the nearest library at Mohading in Potchefstroom. Providing facilities where they can work after hours would give them more study time and better results.

It would also address the issue of girls' safety. ''Girls were being raped at night when they came back from the library, as a result they no longer go to the library, and their marks are dropping," said Mothawanazi.

Mothawanazi's quest was one of the success stories during the recent National Science Week.

HIP2B² general manager Catherine Treasure said: "All South Africans must play a role in nurturing young minds to embrace science, technology and maths, as this is pivotal to the economic prosperity of the country." HIP2B² is also geared towards mentoring youngsters like Mothawanazi to tackle issues that affect their community, she said.

Mothawanazi was selected as a HIP2B² ambassador in December. She is also the president of a 14-member science club called Science Special Agents, which she launched in May.

Through this club Mothawanazi and others help fellow pupils who battle with science and maths. ''Some of us in our class get high marks while others get low marks, so I wanted all of us to get high marks and be on the same level," she said.

Their club also does motivational talks at primary schools during which they encourage an interest in maths and science. They now hope to rope in academics from the University of North West to help boost their science experiments.

HIP2B² ambassadors, selected out of a total of 850 applications, were chosen on the basis of their passion for learning as well as their ability to "inspire".

For National Science Week, HIP2B² hosted an iTHINK competition in all nine provinces. More than 10000 pupils from grades 8 to 11 will compete in regional, semi-final and final rounds in science- and maths-related tasks, riddles and problems.

Competition details are available at www.hip2b2.com