In a world often defined by challenges, it’s powerful to be reminded of the impact of hope, community, and collaboration. That’s exactly what happened when three high school students – Luca Heesom, Ben Honigwachs, and Reuben Futter – turned a simple steel container into a beacon of opportunity for young learners in Nyanga, Cape Town.
What started as a school assignment soon evolved into something much bigger. Their project, tentatively named Project Literacy Cape Town, was inspired by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a particular focus on Quality Education. After visiting several under-resourced schools, the trio identified a pressing need: access to books and safe, inspiring reading spaces. From that insight, the idea of building a library was born.
But not just any library.
Driven by purpose and practicality, Luca, Ben, and Reuben teamed up with the Amy Foundation, an organisation deeply embedded in education and youth development across Cape Town. The foundation offered them a site at St Mary’s School in Nyanga, a school within their after-school support network, to establish the pilot project. With guidance and support from the Amy Foundation, the dream began to take shape.
That’s when Big Box Containers entered the story.
Faced with choices between pre-fab structures or traditional buildings, the team found that a Big Box container offered the perfect blend of affordability, durability, and flexibility. With a generous discount and the ability to customise the container to suit the needs of a fully functional library, the choice was clear. The boys secured the container and transformed it with the help of friends, families, donors, and corporate partners into a welcoming, creative reading hub.
By December 2024, the container was installed at St Mary’s. Over the following months, it was filled with over R100,000 worth of books, furniture, and essentials. Contributions came from all directions: a book drive at their school, donations from Nal’ibali and Rotary Newlands, family-crafted furniture, and more. From bean bags to shelves and a central reading desk, the space was designed not just for function, but for joy.
Today, the container isn’t just a library. It’s a space where students want to be. Thanks to the Amy Foundation, it’s being used actively for reading lessons and literacy development. Children are excited to open a book, explore a story, and discover a world beyond the walls of their school.
One of the most inspiring elements of this project is its scalability. Rather than investing heavily in one-off builds, the team is committed to developing a cost-effective model that can be replicated across the Cape Flats and beyond. With enough support, they hope to launch up to ten libraries by the end of their matric year.
“We wanted a solution that didn’t compromise on quality but could still be repeated,” says Reuben. “And the Big Box container helped us do exactly that.”
The boys have already started fundraising for their next container library, with the long-term goal of expanding access to books and reading spaces to even more communities. It’s a big dream, but they’ve already proven that big things can come in simple packages.
At Big Box Containers, we’re proud to have played a small part in this extraordinary story. Because when a container becomes a classroom, a library, or a place of learning, it becomes something much more – a vessel of hope, a symbol of community, and a catalyst for change.
