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Pizza Hut African Literacy Project Comes to Zimbabwe
18 Apr 2018 at 11:23hrs | Views
HARARE - The Pizza Hut African Literacy Project, the company's new traveling campaign to get more of Africa's children reading, reached Harare today. Dubbed the "Slice of Africa" journey, the project takes Pizza Hut Africa General Manager Ewan Davenport and his team across Africa to 14 cities in 12 countries in 22 days on a route map that follows the shape of a giant pizza slice.
The campaign is Pizza Hut Africa's contribution to the company's global initiative called Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project. Established in 2016, Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project was created to encourage literacy through providing reading resources and engaging customers to make a difference for the cause. In its first year, the global campaign impacted 15.9 million people and distributed more than 275,000 books and educational resources to communities in the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica and South Africa.
"Instead of delivering pizza, we are delivering Red Reading Boxes from our NGO partner, the READ Educational Trust, and exploring the innovative literacy tools they contain with local children in each country," says Davenport. "As 280 million people in Africa cannot read, the campaign is more relevant than ever. Literacy and reading can be real bridges to opportunity, and we're focused on using our growing restaurant footprint in Africa to make a difference in the communities we serve."
During their travels, the Slice of Africa team – along with Pizza Hut franchise partners – will launch a customer donation drive in each country they visit to raise funds that will be combined with Pizza Hut contributions to roll out as many boxes as possible.
In each country, Pizza Hut has identified beneficiary learners from NGOs or schools who will be the first to interact with Red Reading Boxes. Children from local school S.O.S School from S.O.S Children's Village joined Davenport and his team for the Zimbabwe stop on the continental campaign. According to UNESCO, the literacy rate in Zimbabwe shows that one out of 10 people are unable to read.
"The ability to read at Grade 4 level, when you're around 10 years old, is particularly crucial because from Grades 1 to 3 you learn to read‚ and from grades 4 to 12 you read to learn," says Davenport. "Literacy goes way beyond the classroom‚ equipping children with the skills and confidence to participate actively in society. Seeing the children light up as they interact with Red Reading Boxes is great to see. They are inspired to read and that gives me hope."
"READ is excited to be part of this project that allows us to contribute to the language and literacy development of children across the continent by developing the content of the Red Reading Box. Using interesting topics and a range of activities such as games, puzzles, quizzes and stories, the Red Reading Box encourages participation from both the children who receive them as well as their families – making this a fun and creative way to grow their English language and literacy skills. Having access to quality reading material of your own is an important step in becoming more literate." Lizelle Langford - READ Educational Trust PR manager
"We believe that providing access to reading resources will help people thrive and create more prosperous communities, and we hope that people in every country will get behind this," says Davenport. "Every cent that gets donated in a country will go to creating Red Reading Boxes for children in that country. The more we can raise, the more boxes we can distribute. It's time to get on board and give opportunity to children who really need it." Follow the "Slice of Africa" journey along its route and donate both in store or online at www.pizzahutafricanliteracyproject.com
The campaign is Pizza Hut Africa's contribution to the company's global initiative called Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project. Established in 2016, Pizza Hut: The Literacy Project was created to encourage literacy through providing reading resources and engaging customers to make a difference for the cause. In its first year, the global campaign impacted 15.9 million people and distributed more than 275,000 books and educational resources to communities in the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica and South Africa.
"Instead of delivering pizza, we are delivering Red Reading Boxes from our NGO partner, the READ Educational Trust, and exploring the innovative literacy tools they contain with local children in each country," says Davenport. "As 280 million people in Africa cannot read, the campaign is more relevant than ever. Literacy and reading can be real bridges to opportunity, and we're focused on using our growing restaurant footprint in Africa to make a difference in the communities we serve."
During their travels, the Slice of Africa team – along with Pizza Hut franchise partners – will launch a customer donation drive in each country they visit to raise funds that will be combined with Pizza Hut contributions to roll out as many boxes as possible.
In each country, Pizza Hut has identified beneficiary learners from NGOs or schools who will be the first to interact with Red Reading Boxes. Children from local school S.O.S School from S.O.S Children's Village joined Davenport and his team for the Zimbabwe stop on the continental campaign. According to UNESCO, the literacy rate in Zimbabwe shows that one out of 10 people are unable to read.
"The ability to read at Grade 4 level, when you're around 10 years old, is particularly crucial because from Grades 1 to 3 you learn to read‚ and from grades 4 to 12 you read to learn," says Davenport. "Literacy goes way beyond the classroom‚ equipping children with the skills and confidence to participate actively in society. Seeing the children light up as they interact with Red Reading Boxes is great to see. They are inspired to read and that gives me hope."
"READ is excited to be part of this project that allows us to contribute to the language and literacy development of children across the continent by developing the content of the Red Reading Box. Using interesting topics and a range of activities such as games, puzzles, quizzes and stories, the Red Reading Box encourages participation from both the children who receive them as well as their families – making this a fun and creative way to grow their English language and literacy skills. Having access to quality reading material of your own is an important step in becoming more literate." Lizelle Langford - READ Educational Trust PR manager
"We believe that providing access to reading resources will help people thrive and create more prosperous communities, and we hope that people in every country will get behind this," says Davenport. "Every cent that gets donated in a country will go to creating Red Reading Boxes for children in that country. The more we can raise, the more boxes we can distribute. It's time to get on board and give opportunity to children who really need it." Follow the "Slice of Africa" journey along its route and donate both in store or online at www.pizzahutafricanliteracyproject.com
Source - Agencies
