17 December 2020
Despite the challenges of COVID-19 that prevented direct engagement with students, promoting literacy remains a priority for De Beers Group. The Books in Homes program, which is now in its 17th year, topped CAD$1 million as the company rolled out its largest-ever literacy program in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Founded in 2003, Books in Homes provides books free of charge to youth attending schools in primarily Indigenous communities near our NWT operations. To date, more than 60,000 books have been handed out, including 10,760 distributed to 17 schools during the past two weeks, the largest number of books and most schools in a single year since the program began.
Literacy development is a key component of the De Beers Group Building Forever initiative Partnering for Thriving Communities, announced on November 30.
The investment includes the cost to purchase books and transport them to communities, including Behchoko, Whati, Wekweeti, Gameti, Dettah, Ndilo, Lutsel K’e, and Fort Resolution. At its outset the program focused on isolated Indigenous communities in order to fill a pressing literacy gap, and it has been expanded to incorporate other communities during the past few years, including Fort Smith in 2019 and Hay River in 2018.
This year, the program includes books being provided to students attending seven Yellowknife schools and Chief Sunrise Education Centre on the K’atl’odeeche First Nation.