Pedaling to help fellow-students

IN THE hope of raising funds to help their friends become doctors, a group of Stellenbosch University students will cycle from the Namibian border to Cape Agulhas.

The initiative is being pioneered by third-year medical students and Namibian national Breda Reed.

Reed said they wanted to raise R100 000 to rescue students from financial exclusion.

The team will embark on the 902km journey from Vioolsdrift at the Namibian border to Cape Agulhas, the most Southern tip of Africa, from December 1 and hope to finish on December 8.

“We want to help our friends become doctors. We don’t think it’s fair that some students drop out because they don’t have access to basic necessities.”

He appealed to health-care professionals to help set up a fund dedicated to ensuring students wanting to go into the field were not financially excluded.

The university’s rector and vice-chancellor, Professor Wim de Villiers, has thrown his weight behind the initiative.

He will ride with the group from Stellenbosch to Franschhoek.

“It is so heartening to see the passion and enthusiasm of our staff, students and alumni to drive student success at SU. The passion of these young men to do something to address the pertinent issue of student funding gaps is inspiring,” De Villiers said.

The group consists of Reed, Mias Marais, Luke Titus, and Christoff Greyling – all students of medicine, and Wonderboy Nkosi is a student of dietetics.

Tuesday marked 100 days of Stellenbosch University’s #Move4Food campaign, another student-inspired initiative that aims to create food banks on the Stellenbosch and Tygerberg campuses.

Senior director for Development and Alumni Relations Karen Bruns said they aimed to raise R10 million.

“Although we have not reached our target yet, we received overwhelming support on various levels. We have decided to extend the campaign until 19 April 2019 in order to allow students, alumni and friends of the University further opportunity to pour their energy into reaching the target.”