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SANZAF bursaries empower students
Author: FMHS Marketing & Communication / FGGW Bemarking & Kommunikasie
Published: 19/10/2017

Students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), Stellenbosch University, were full of praise for the South African National Zakáh Fund (SANZAF) at a recent event where the organisation handed over a cheque to the value of R776 150 for student bursaries.

“SANZAF didn't just help me financially and academically. By taking part in their charity events, I also grew as a person," a second year medical student at FMHS said of this faith-based social-welfare and educational organisation.

“I am very grateful to SANZAF. I am one of four children and the bursary lightens the financial burden on my family," said another MB,ChB II student. “Taking part in their outreach programmes makes me feel like I'm making a difference, and reminds me of why I want to be a doctor – which is something you can lose sight of when you're always studying."

This year, SANZAF gave partial bursaries to 44 Maties students, 34 of which are studying at the FMHS.

“We are living in a time when the need is much greater than the available resources, so we are grateful for any support," said Prof Jimmy Volmink, Dean of the FMHS. “SANZAF has been a faithful supporter for many years, and not only has your support been regular, it also increases every year."

SANZAF raises funds through the collection of Zakáh (a portion of a person's wealth donated to the deserving), which are then distributed to social-welfare and educational programmes aimed at empowering and assisting the needy.

“SANZAF has been operating for 43 years and was initially focussed on welfare relief by handing out food parcels, etc. We realised that although this was bringing relief, it was not breaking the cycle of poverty and that we need to develop more sustainable interventions. Today we have the SANZAF Education and Empowerment Development Programme (SEED), which offers bursaries and vocational training, supports Islamic studies, and also has an early childhood development- and a youth mentoring programme," said Ms Yasmina Franke, the SANZAF General Manager in the Western Cape.

“Our intention is not to make people dependent on SANZAF. We want to empower people so that today's bursary recipients, one day becomes payers of Zakáh."

 

Caption: (Front) Ms Yasmina Franke, Prof Jimmy Volmink and Ms Faeza Govind. (Back) Ms Farah Fredericks, Dr Therese Fish, Prof Julia Blitz, Mr Arrie Hanekom.