Help the Denis Hurley Centre collect 10 052 books for Street Lit sales in Mandela Month

Help us collect 10 052 books.

The vision of July 18 being Mandela Day is being spread across a whole month of July at the Denis Hurley Centre, with a month-long call-out to collect 10 052 quality second-hand books for their Street Lit booksellers, one for every day Madiba spent in prison.

The much-loved, feel-good, Durban-based entrepreneurship programme enables a team of homeless or formerly homeless men and women to earn a modest living, have a renewed life-purpose, and to encourage and enable people to read more books.

“With so many vendors selling books – and with new apprentice vendors joining the team – we need to keep them constantly supplied in quality books. So, we are launching a Durban-wide book drive for July: Mandela Month.

“The challenge is to collect just more than 10 000 books – one for every day he spent in prison! After all, books must have been one of the things that kept Madiba sane for 27 long years,” said project facilitator Illa Thompson.

“Conservatively, if there are 15 vendors selling at any one time – and say they each sell five books a day on average – that means we need to source 75 fresh books a day to keep their stock viable. And that is just our regular and permanent venues – excluding popups and events, where the volumes are higher. That means we always need a steady supply of really good books!”

The vendors welcome Bibles, selfhelp books, best-sellers, popular and award-winning novels, children’s books, dictionaries (English and Zulu) and books in Zulu. Quality, current, good-condition books only, please!

There are places to drop off books. Please mark books clearly for “Denis Hurley Centre” and ideally please drop them off in bags or boxes, for easy storage and collection.

The full list of participating churches are:

• Bluff: NGK Durban Oos, Old Mission Rd, Grosvenor (Mon, Tues, Thurs: 9am until noon).
• Bellair: All Saints, 1135 Sarnia Rd (Mon – Fri: 8am until noon).
• Umbilo: St Cyprian’s, 603 Umbilo Rd (Mon – Fri: 8am until 4pm).
• Westridge: New Noise, 76 Bank Terrace, Manor Gardens (Mon – Fri: 8am until 4pm).
• Westville: Our Lady of Lourdes, 14 Westville Rd (Mon – Thurs: 9am until 4pm; Fri 9am until noon).
• Hillcrest: St Dominic’s, 1 Mill Rd, Hillcrest (Mon – Fri: 8am until 1pm).
• Central: Glenridge at Durban Station (Mon – Wed: 8am until 4pm).
• Central: Denis Hurley Centre, opp Fish Market (Mon to Sun: 8am until 5pm).
• Berea: Musgrave Methodist, Cnr St Thomas/Musgrave Rd (Mon – Fri: 8.30 until 1pm).
• Morningside: St James: 115 Venice Rd (Tues – Fri 8.30am until noon).
• Dbn N: Dbn North Methodist, 3 Swapo Rd (Mon – Fri 8am until noon).
• Dbn N: Presbyterian, 3 Round the Green, Sunningdale (Mon – Fri: 7am until 1.30pm).
• Virginia: St Margaret’s, 11 Delaware Ave (Mon – Fri: 7.30am until 11am).
• Umhlanga Rocks: St Michaels, 6 Durban View Rd (Mon – Fri 8am until noon).
• Ballito: All Saints, 61 Townsend Rd (Mon – Fri 8am until 3pm).

The Mandela Day 10 052 books campaign will take place throughout the month of July.

You will find the book vendors:

• Alvin Dube – La Lucia Mall, by Woolworths;
• Sbusiso Mnguni – Ballito Life and Style, by the gallery;
• Donel Tanbeni at the KZNSA Gallery;
• David Sithole – outside municipal satellite container library alongside The Workshop;
• David Jones – Berea Centre; Bulelo Sigabi – Davenport Square,
• Eric Badise and Godfrey Ngubo – Durban Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre;
• Richard Nzima and Khanyisile Cele – Pick n Pay Hyper by the Sea;
• Vusi Meyiwa – Bluff Towers; Xolani Gamede – uMlazi
• Mega City; Anele Nyembezi around the taxi ranks;
• Qhawe Mbatha –Bridge City, Mongezi Mtolo – Cortado coffee shop,
• Musgrave; China Shabalala around town. Look out for our lime green branding.

For additional queries contact Illa on books@denishurleycentre.org.

The Mercury