Our Girls Scholarship Fund is off to a great start in 2021. Our high school team has already visited 40 high schools, speaking to Grade 12 classes about the year ahead and what it will take to make it to university. During that process, we identify every single learner that, based on their academic results, could qualify to go to university. We then buy study guides, develop customised study packs of old exams and memos and prepare student profiles to enable us to help apply to universities and bursaries across the country on their behalf.
This year we have appointed a full-time staff member to look after our rural area high schools as we deepen our work in those communities and expand assistance outside of the city. Needless to say, the need is often much greater in these schools. We have already compiled a database with over 292 Grade 12 learners that could potentially attend university in 2022 and will be working tirelessly to help them get there.
On the university front, our team has been working overtime to help students get registered for studies this year. With the academic year postponed due to covid and many courses being transitioned to online learning, the process is confusing for many students. We began by hosting orientations in town for two cohorts of students: 1. Those traveling to other cities and 2. Those studying locally at Nelson Mandela University. Both groups were introduced to their student mentors, provided stipends to help get their year started and given guidance about how to travel, how to find accommodation and how to get registered.
It is a particularly intimidating process for our 1st years traveling to other cities, many for the first time in their lives. Having our student mentors at their side and being introduced to other students attending the same institutions makes a huge difference. Many are also comforted by the fact that senior Masi students are on their respective campuses and always available to help.
Locally, we have identified many of our most impoverished students - those who live 10 to a home, those in wooden shacks, those who are orphaned - and moved them into our Masi Houses of Excellence. Each of these students will be provided with a safe, inspiring and supportive environment from which to concentrate on their studies.
Together, we are creating a generation of female graduates empowered to uplift their own families, solve their own community’s problems and serve as role models to other children.
Thank you for making this all possible.
Sincerely,
Jim
P.S. Please check out our Q1 Project Report attached. A frinedly reminder that this GlobalGiving project only supports the females on the project :)
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Our Girl's Scholarship Fund continues to operate at near full capacity, despite the pandemic. The major difference is we have added a massive feeding support initiative to the project. With all our students at home and parents losing jobs, we have been distributing thousands of food parcels to ensure no one goes hungry. You built a website to track the project if you're interested: www.projectunity.co.za
Universities all closed in March due to South Africa's nationwide lockdown, but they were able to shift towards online learning in April. The universities are now offering two paths to students: (1) 100% e learning from their own homes now or (2) blended learning with classroom time to be obtained in the future when universities are able to provide it.
The majority of our students have a combination of both of these paths, choosing to complete some courses online now and others in person later. The Department of Higher Education seems committed to ensuring all students remain on their original graduation timelines, but this is to be determined.
In terms of the virus, things are getting pretty bad. South Africa currently has one of the top 10 fastest growing outbreaks in the world. Our positive test percentage is above 25%, which is terrible. However, our death rate is still very low. South Africa's population is extremely young, so we are hopeful that plays to our advantage.
We have continued to operate our Masinyusane House of Excellence, with students on a rotating schedule during lockdowns 3 and 4. The House is fully equipped and reorganised to ensure everyone’s safety and health.
Masinyusane continues to sponsor a number of young women that would otherwise have no opportunity to further their studies. They continue to make us proud and are themselves grateful beyond measure. While semester 1 results are delayed due to the pandemic, the current pass-rate of the students is 88%!
We have tragically had some students lose family members to Covid-19, including a girl in our Masi House of Excellence. This will, unfortunately, continue to be the case as the virus spreads across the country.
But with your support, we will do our best to rally together, fight through this difficult time, and be there for all of the girls in every way that we can.
Thank you, very sincerely, for all of your continued support!
Sincerely,
Jim & The Girls
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Hi everyone,
Universities in South Africa have offically opened and our Girl's Scholarship Fund is once again providing life changing opportunities to hundreds of promising young women.
We have 90 first year girls starting school at Nelson Mandela University (NMU) this year. This is, by far, our biggest cohort every. It will be a ton of work for our team, but we are super excited to see so many of our youth getting this opportunity. In total, we now have 300 girls registered at NMU.
The first two months of the year are exhausting on our side as we scramble to get the girls accepted into university and find everyone housing. We are happy to share that 15 have been selected to live in our Masinyusane House of Excellence. As always, they will benefit from free food, the internet, mentoring & the culture of success that we have built over the years.
If you follow us on social media, you may have seen that we had 9 additional young women graduate this past December. These are my favorite moments, as they are the culmination of four years of hard work. We are also proud to share that our 2019 pass-rate was an astounding 90% (a record for us!). It's a testament to how hard the girls are working to better their future.
You are making an enormous difference in the lives of the girls and their families.
Thank you for showing them so much support, generosity & love,
Jim
Masinyusane's Girls' Scholarship Fund continues to provide life-changing opportunities to gifted young women from Port Elizabeth's townships, enabling them to access and succeed at University.
We currently have 228 girls enrolled at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth. The government has drastically increased access to financial aid in 2019, enabling us to use your generosity to help the girls with more bus fare, food stipends, laptops, housing, workshoips and mentoring.
Most come from homes of abject poverty and this assistance is critical in enabling them to succeed at school. We are honored to play a roll in them realizing their potential in life and hope to share some excellent exam results in early December :)
We simultaneously have our High School team in all 35 township high schools identifying every girl that could potentially attend university in 2020. So far, we have just over 125 girls identified. We have submitted applications to 5 different universities for each of them, helped a few win scholarships already and are busy with all of their financial aid applications.
One by one, we are building a generation of female leaders in impoverished South African communities. Thank you for playing such an important role in making this happen!
Jim
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