Sumathi V. Selvaretnam, Straits Times 8 Dec 07;
MR NG Cheng Huat, 49, waited patiently in line at Downtown East last Saturday.
The driver for a catering company had been standing in line for two hours since
7am, just to make sure that he could get his hands on some used textbooks for his two sons, aged 13 and 11.
'Prices of everything are up. In addition to school books, I need to buy them uniforms, school bags and spectacles. The total cost is over $1,000.'
But with the NTUC Used Textbooks Project, he saves about $600 a year as he gets their books free.
Now into its 25th year, the project has re-distributed 1.43 million books and helped more than 100,000 needy students save over $7 million in textbook expenses.
This year, some 120,000 books were snapped up by 8,000 beneficiaries.
Mr Tan Kian Chew, group CEO of NTUC FairPrice, said that the scheme not only helped families, it was also a move that helped the environment.
FairPrice's efforts in promoting the green message were also recognised last year by Global Compact, a United Nations organisation that promotes corporate social responsibility.
With the project, the public donates books at NTUC FairPrice supermarkets islandwide.
These are then sorted at distribution centres by student volunteers before the books are given away to families who need and want them.
