China's Huawei helps advance literacy in S. Africa

China's global technology giant Huawei and South African partners have launched an e- Libraries program here to help boost literacy in South Africa, where only 15 percent of the population have access to a community library.

The program is a partnership with Vodacom South Africa, the Department of Basic Education of South Africa and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The e-Libraries program is an educational content application, which is freely available on Huawei tablets at the 61 Vodacom Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resource centers situated across South Africa.

The 400 tablets provided by Huawei have been loaded with a collection of e-book content, including genres of African literature, history, business/entrepreneurship and fiction.

The collection, which is available in all eleven official languages of South Africa, is made accessible by publishing partners -- Via Afrika, Oxford University Press, Shuter & Shooter and FunDza, and is complemented with content from the Department of Basic Education and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

"Huawei has been continuously partnering with Vodacom to provide ubiquitous telecom network services to build a better connected world. We share much appreciation to our valued partners for the collaborated efforts to improve educational platforms in South Africa," said You Jiangtao, Huawei Vice President of East and Southern Africa Region.

"At Huawei, we strive to bridge the digital divide and hope the beneficiaries will capitalize on this opportunity," said You.

Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom Group, said access to reading material is a major challenge in South Africa, as many learners do not have access to libraries and reading material.

Joosub said that the program is to use their technology to "help make a difference in the communities where our customers live," adding that "through this initiative, Vodacom seeks to enable learners and community members to read e-books at the centers for free."

"Vodacom together with its partners believe that we can help address this challenge by broadening access to literacy in this way," Joosub said.

Sello Hatang, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, appreciated the program by quoting Mandela's saying "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead."

"Nelson Mandela's legacy has created the opportunity for us to achieve a bright future," said Hatang.

As the device provider, Huawei also took part in an e-learning program initiated by the Gauteng Department of Education in 2014.

You said that Huawei had invested in over 100 universities and training institutes globally to facilitate knowledge transfer, and that 45 ICT training centers were built by Huawei or by partnerships with Huawei. Endi