Give Disadvantaged South Africans Hope & A Future

The HABandBF Team works busily throughout the year – most are volunteers and all do the work for the joy of helping to make life better for individuals within the area of the Valley of 1000 Hills.  In Spring, those attending schools and tertiary institutions are revising and writing their exams;  HABandBF takes this opportunity to review what we have achieved this year and plan for the following year. 

In this report we celebrate the CAO Project Team. The ‘CAO Project’ is named after the Central Applications Office through which Matrics (final year school learners, usually aged 18) apply to universities in KZN (KwaZulu Natal, the province in South Africa where Hillcrest Advice Bureau and Bursary fund is based).

This team delivers the best value for money in terms of achieving one of our core aims to help disadvantaged members of the community lift themselves out of the poverty cycle.  Through their workshops over 900 matrics from disadvantaged schools are given the tools and understandings to make good and appropriate choices for what they will do after matric.  The academically brightest are financially supported with the R250 (+- £10/ $13) CAO fee - thus accessing NSFAS student funding and entering tertiary education or  vocational training without the anxiety or huge financial burden of finding registration fees.

Sakhile was a beneficiary of the CAO Project in 2021.  Sakhile, from Kwantebeni High, studied Engineering Technology in Computer Engineering at Cape Penisular University of Technology with a hand up from HABandBF in the form of R250 CAO fee and a laptop suitable for his engineering studies.   Now working as an intern with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) in Hermanus he has made the most of his bright mind and hard working ethos to break out of the poverty cycle.

Thanks to our donors, 97 top Matrics in nine schools in the Valley of 1000 Hills could apply to the CAO without having to worry about where to find the application fee.  Through WhatsApp groups we alert them to closing dates and bursary opportunities.  We shall continue to monitor them for as long as they need it. 

Our workshops have helped 900 Matrics to identify their ‘Working personality’, research their dream career and learn how to do a ‘reality check’ before making applications for post-school education. 

Of the 84 high fliers on our programme in 2024, 41 are studying at universities and TVET colleges and 16 others attended Gap Year Workshops we ran in March to help improve their chances next year.

So far this year we have already encouraged 1 000 Grade 9 learners in eight schools to focus on their aptitudes and long-term goals when choosing their subjects for Grade 10 and to consider TVET College options.  Two of these workshops were attended by parents.  We encourage parents to attend at all of the schools, but some do not have the space to accommodate parents and children in the same room.