Rally to Read for children in South African rural areas South Africa suffers a serious reading skills deficit that inhibits learners from completing secondary education and continuing their skills development towards gainful employment.

Founded in 1998 by McCarthy, the Financial Mail and the READ Education Trust, Rally to Read is an educational initiative founded on a high level of personal involvement by sponsors and supporters. The 13th series of rallies took place over five weekends, from May 2010.

From its early days as a campaign to distribute educational books to a handful of schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Rally to Read has developed into an educational programme for primary schools in rural areas. Since inception, almost R40 million has been invested via 76 rallies that have delivered educational resources to 650 schools in 34 rural areas.

Key to the project’s success is the involvement of supporting companies and their employees in the distribution process. The annual rallies bring together individuals and company representatives intent on supporting the efforts of rural schools. Each convoy consists of six to eight four-wheel-drive vehicles that cover rough and remote terrain. Sponsors, including many McCarthy dealers, use of their own 4x4 vehicles to personally deliver the books.

Rally to Read has not only created awareness for literacy improvement in remote rural schools, it has also managed to empower poorly qualified educators through the provision of much-needed educational resources and training.

Each school is supported for three years. In the first year the emphasis is on books with large, glossy pictures for classroom reading. In the second and third years the literature becomes more challenging and informative.

Rally to Read visits schools over a three-year period as part of a professional teacher development programme run by READ. The programme aims to embed world-class teaching methods in these faraway places and encourage the effective learning of literacy skills as a foundation for an all-round education.