Logistics collaboration furnishes local school

It started with a chance conversation and ended with major freight industry collaboration, driven by Land & Sea Shipping, to deliver second-hand school furniture from the United Kingdom (UK) to the Illovo Primary School in Umbumbulo, KwaZulu Natal. “Last year, chatting to some teacher friends from the UK, we discovered that the school at which they teach receives new furniture every two to three years and the old furniture literally goes to the dump. Knowing the realities that so many schools in South Africa face where some children don’t even have the luxury of desks or chairs, we knew we had to make a plan and get some of the old furniture over here,” Manju Pather, director at Land & Sea Shipping, told FTW. She said that by the end of 2012 their teacher friends had managed to collect enough school furniture to fit into a twenty foot container – from desks and chairs to wooden book shelves. It took the better part of 2013 to rope in logistics companies based in South Africa and the UK to assist in transporting the furniture but in the end several operators assisted, she added, including Hapag Lloyd, Time Freight Services Limited, African Logistics Services, Transglobal, Eagle Creek Logistics and Udumo Ships Agency. Pather says the company would like to continue this project on an annual or even bi-annual basis and will be actively seeking logistics partners to assist. CAPTION Mags Moodley, Keshnee Sewchuran, Manju Pather, Geetha Khaki, Laurene van Rensburg and Kantha Govender… investing in future leaders.