The Rotaract Club of Dunedin, working alongside another club in Rarotonga, is aiming to ensure nine schools in the country have basic reading and writing material - as well as anything extra people would like to donate.
About 20 members of the Rotaract Club, the junior branch of the Rotary Club for 18-to-30-year-olds, were giving up their time to help.
Club vice-president Jack Elliotte said donation boxes would be found around the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic areas, as well as the centre of town.
Mr Elliotte said the drive would run from May 14 to May 18.
If people did not want to donate stationery, they could instead give money.
What constituted stationery was "open to interpretation". Donors were encouraged to give anything that might be helpful to school pupils.
Mr Elliotte did not have any particular target but simply encouraged people to contribute what they could.
The idea was born when he left university at the end of last year and discovered he had so much surplus stationery he did not know what to do with it, Mr Elliotte said.
Winton Paper Plus was already sponsoring the initiative by providing the group with discounted stationery to send overseas.
"It started as quite small idea then just expanded rapidly."
He also was talking to other local businesses which were also interested in contributing.
There were about 60 people in total in the club, most of them students.
Mr Elliotte said it was a busy time for them in terms of fundraising, as this Friday they were baking Anzac biscuits for the hospital, and they were also holding a baking sale on May 18 to raise money for the ChatBus Trust.
Drop-box locations:
OUSA Clubs and Societies Building at 84 Albany St, OUSA main office at 640 Cumberland St, Selwyn College, Arana College Studholme College, Richardson Law Library, Uniflats office on St Davids St, and Polson Higgs on Moray Pl. More locations to be confirmed. https://www.facebook.com/rotaractdunedin/
