Narios Kganyago posing with the Feenix student ambassador package from Van Schaik book store in Turfloop. The ambassador package contains: posters, hand sanitisers, t-shirt and pens. Photo supplied
By Ottis Malatji
Unfunded University of Limpopo (UL) students with disabilities have received funding to further their studies from online crowd funder Feenix, for the 2022 academic year.
This happened after Feenix officials approached Reakgona Disability Centre (RDC) at UL in a bid to help students with no funding or those with historical debt, said the centre’s librarian and former acting director, Justice Phukubje.
Funding remains one of the burning issues for many university students in the country. Students with special needs are no exception, particularly the “missing middle” – those from working-class homes who cannot afford higher education fees yet do not qualify for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funding – and postgraduate students, as reported by News24 in 2020.
Even though the South African government tries to mitigate this issue through NSFAS, the vast majority of students remain unfunded as they do not meet the criteria, IOL reported. NSFAS funding guidelines are that it mainly covers students at undergraduate level whose family’s household annual income is R350 000 or less or R600 000 if they are disabled.
Feenix is making a change. The online crowd funder, which works with public universities, was founded in 2017 by a group of stakeholders, with Standard Bank leading the charge,in response to the 2015 and 2016 #FeesMustFall protests. It is connecting communities in an innovative way to achieve debt-free education through its website, where students create profiles to be easily spotted by donors. The funds are paid directly to the student’s university account.
Narios Kganyago, a 25-year-old partially blind BA honours in English and translation studies student at UL, is one of 68students with disabilities that have benefited from the fund.
Kganyago struggled to secure funding before finding out about Feenix through RDC. He had applied for numerous bursaries, including one from the Limpopo department of education, with no luck. Kganyago who also had historical debt of over R40 000, was jubilant when he learned through RDC that the crowd funder was settling his debt. In the current trying economic crisis, the fund is helping him to stay afloat through the support it provides in the form of monthly living allowances of R1 000. The fund has also provided students with assistive devices.
Now also a Feenix student ambassador, Kganyago hailed the crowd funder: “I don’t know where I would be without Feenix.” One of the best things the honours student likes most is that the crowd funder does not exclude any level of study, as it even covers master’s and PhD candidates.
One key player in helping the students secure this funding is RDC’s administrative officer, Refiloe Rangata, who helpsstudents to set up their profiles on Feenix’s website. She received an award from the university in recognition of her outstanding work in liaising between Feenix officials and the students.
