Melbourne Storm will help to deliver much needed schoolbooks to Fijian students in the lead up to their groundbreaking trial match at Churchill Park later this month.
Storm chief executive, Justin Rodski and Fiji Bati prop and Captain Tui Kamikamica, announced the club will support Fiji Book Drive to encourage donations and deliver books to students who need them most.
“We are fortunate to be in a position to help schools who are in need of important and basic educational resources through our partnership with Fiji Book Drive,” Rodski said.
“While there is a lot of interest in our game against the Knights, we wanted to find a way to have a genuine impact on those who need it most while we were in Fiji.
“Tui has been particularly passionate about giving back to the local community, and we hope that together with the Fiji Book Drive we can put a smile on the faces of young girls and boys at school who need these books most and give them a better education for the future.”
Storm players will visit schools, local villages and junior rugby league clubs in the days leading up to their clash with Newcastle Knights on February 24th, while Kamikamica will also visit his home village during the week with a number of Storm players.
Fiji Book Drive chief executive, Fiona Luth, said the not-for-profit aims to improve educational outcomes and life opportunities for students of Fiji through increased access to educational resources, predominantly focussed on literacy.
“The work of Fiji Book Drive has been described to me as ‘nation building’ by teachers in Fiji, having delivered almost 300,000 books to Fijian schools over 12 years,” Luth said.
“Whole islands in Fiji have been assisted with establishing library collections from Fiji Book Drive.
“Fiji Book Drive relies on donations to do this vitally important work so to help us do this work please head to our website www.fijibookdrive.org.”
Fiji Book Drive is a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Fiji Book Drive has Donor Gift Recipient (DGR) status in Australia and financial contributions are tax deductible.
