Enough Hashtags, Time To Help Educate Our Youth | Online Funding Initiative That Is Working

While I appreciate the power of Twitter to bring an issue to the fore, I am also blatantly aware that the platform is more about hype than tangible impact. With that, it was with great pleasure that I read an article on The Star about an initiative that is actually doing something to help educate our youth. 

There is a false sense of expectation from a lot of people that tertiary education fees will be abolished. Being a realist and judging by the many sectors of our society that are in disarray because of lack of funding, like the health sector, policing, etc, I am more inclined to advice my fellow South Africans tio look for a more practical way to get their education. 

A Stellenbosch graduate, Emmanuel Luthuli, has taken it upon himself to actually do something abut the fees crisis by starting a crown funding site that helps student plead their case to the public and get donations to settle their fees.

The crowd funding site, Bursary Network, has given at present 10 student a platform to plead their case about the financial strain they face to pay off their University fees. One such student is Ntokozo, from Mount Ayliff (EC) who is now a first year student at Wits. The Bsc Mechanical Engineering student with 7 distinctions from high school is asking for a R70 126, 00 funding and with 48 days left has raised R13 715, 00. 

I am so happy for Emmanuel and these students. They can now get help and if we all rally behind such an initiative, we could actually change lives. #FeesMustFall movement is necessary and has raised the issue of financial misappropriation by government forward. But there is a certain level of realism that needs to set in. Free tertiary education in our life time with the current size of our economy and lack of prioritizings essentials by the government renders such a dream a long way from being a reality.  

Bursary Network is the next best thing to making a tangible difference in students' lives. 

To find out more about the Bursary Network and donate to the students, visit www.bursarynetwork.com

Donate! Tell somebody about it!