An anti-crime initiative started by musicians Danny K and Kabelo Mabalane has raised millions of rands - and made a big difference in the lives of people such as 13-year-old Nokuthula Madonsela.
The teenager from Freedom Park near Soweto now spends her afternoons engrossed in reading at a container library set up by the musicians' charity initiative, Shout SA.
The library replaced the one at her school, Somelulwazi Primary, which was closed and converted to a classroom to ease overcrowding.
Madonsela credits the library with helping her win a recent spelling bee held among 25 schools in the area.
"I come to the library during breaks and get new words from different books, look them up in the dictionary and practise spelling them until I know them," she said.
She shares the R350000 library, stocked with more than 2500 books, with about 1700 children from her school. Shout SA has also paid for libraries at Eisleben Road Primary in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, and Limpopo's Pondo Primary School.
Shout SA, which raises money mainly through music downloads, supports other causes, including the police's Widows and Orphans Fund.
Said Mabalane: "Access to books is extremely important. We need to get our youth to understand the power of reading."
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