Crowdfunding bid gets laptops to students
Rhodes University student Zintle Tshaka is among 200 students around the country assisted with a laptop and data to assist her online studies through crowdfunding organisation Feenix Trust in partnership with Van Schaik book stores.
The fundraising campaign, #Capthegap, was started at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown when many institutions embarked on distance education through online teaching. Many students did not have electronic devices, nor funds to buy them. Van Schaik Makhanda branch manager Susan van Eck said the countrywide store has assisted with sourcing and distributing the devices and data to the students. One Rhodes student had so far been assisted and they were identifying more.
“As a branch manager who has worked with a lot of students, it was a rewarding experience to be able to do this,” said Van Schaik Makhanda branch manager Susan van Eck.
She said the Feenix Trust sources deserving students from different institutions and applies qualifying criteria before accepting them as beneficiaries of the programme.
“So far around 200 students across the country have been accepted as beneficiaries and more are in the process of being identified,”van Eck said.