Corporate Social Investment

Via Afrika acknowledges the need to give back to the community it serves, and that has been part of the company’s success. To this end, we maintain a positive involvement in Corporate Social Investment programmes. Via Afrika has demonstrated this commitment in the following ways over the last few years.

National Teaching Awards

Via Afrika is a proud sponsor of the Department of Basic Education’s Annual National Teaching Awards.

VADECs

Via Afrika Digital Education Centres (VADECs) are converted shipping containers filled with 15 or 25 tablets, a computer, Wi-Fi internet access with Via Afrika sponsored data, more than 400 Via Afrika ebooks, apps and other digital content, as well as Via Afrika’s printed books and other library books (where applicable).

In partnership with Breadline Africa and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, we donated 3 digital centres, situated in the Free State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Via Afrika launched a fourth VADEC in the Eastern Cape in February 2016.

The teachers in the four schools where the VADECs are located are trained on a regular basis on how to use technology, how to plan and present a lesson incorporating digital material and how to facilitate and manage the use of technology in education. The aim of these VADECs is to provide teachers and learners in rural areas the opportunity to work with technology and experience elearning. At the same time, these VADECs enable us as a company to trial and improve our digital material and establish the level of training and intervention required for a meaningful elearning experience to take place.

Training across SA

Capacity building via skills transfer is a vital element of the Via Afrika CSI work. Via Afrika offers digital education workshops to educators across South Africa as well as in Botswana at no cost. These training workshops have been well received by both officials and teachers as it equipped them with knowledge on the use of technology in the classroom and how to integrate it in the curriculum.

Children writing to Grow Smart

At Via Afrika, we work with educational texts that serve to enable teachers and learners to discover the joys of education. It is our task to team up with the authors, editors, illustrators, book designers, typesetters and printers to craft one person’s vision into a living object that benefits hundreds, even thousands, of others. It has therefore been our privilege to work with Growthpoint, the WCED and these talented writers to publish these anthologies of experience and imagination. We were presented with stories that moved or delighted; artwork that showed aptitude and insight; and a passion that invigorated us in our tasks – quite an achievement for a group of people with many years of experience in the educational book industry. We look forward to being able to participate in further projects of this worth. Visit our dedicated GrowSmart page to download free copies of all the Children writing to grow smart books.