Company Announcement - The annual Stationery Drive is an initiative created and run by the Miss Earth South Africa Head Office. The Stationary Drive, now in its tenth year, supports learners by giving packs of brand new stationary to start the school year.

The year, contributions from corporates, friends and family of the Miss Earth SA have allowed the team to reach children in Eden Park, Thokoza, Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Katlehong, Mondeor and Soweto – distributing 10,000 packs to learners. Key partners to the Stationery Drive have been Imperial Toyota, Tsogo Sun, RMS (Retail Marketing Services) and The Coca-Cola Company. Dr Mia, Carmen Constantinides and Amira Mia along with Ilze Saunders and Roxanne Watson who are the Miss Earth South Africa Winners of 2014 all made contributions towards these packs of hope so as to help improve the lives of others.

This initiative was started in 2007, by Ella Bella, who while working in Soweto as an education graduate at Wits, realised the need for basic stationery. Ella Bella would help educators prepare their teaching material for the next day. She soon realised that the educators did not have all the materials and skills they needed to deliver the right education to the learners. A shortage of educators, lack of text books, large classes and 45 children all sharing one pencil compounded the problem. It was then Ella Bella committed to starting the Stationary Drive.

The campaign grew in leaps and bounds through the selfless commitment of many individuals donating and volunteering their support. “The gift is in being able to hand the stationery to each child. We request new stationery, as this is what our children deserve. We want them to be able to draw and colour, to dream and imagine. A pencil can draw 1 000 dreams,” explains Catherine Constantinides, Executive Director of Miss Earth SA.

This year, the goal is to expand the support to educating learners about their environment and what they can do to live in a greener world. “We are proud to be partnering with Miss Earth South Africa and supporting the start of 2015 Stationery Drive. As a brand with a strong South African heritage, Valprè seeks to align itself with initiatives that talk to our objectives of sustainable development, active citizenship and environmental stewardship. We will continue to engage with like-minded organisations such as Miss Earth South Africa and together educate consumers on how to make decisions that not only positively impact the environment, but provide the building blocks to empower our future leaders.” says Lerato Ramabya, Brand Manager: Waters, of Coca-Cola South Africa.

“Our children are our greatest investment as we move forward. There is no worthier cause than the care of the future generations.” Catherine Constantinides