Thusanani Foundation

Thusanani Foundation is a Youth-Led Non-Profit Organisation founded in 2011 to bridge the educational information gap between rural high school learners and their urban counterparts.

Background:

Due to a lack of information, advice and encouragement many talented young South Africans living in rural areas and Townships either do not consider or are unable to access institutions of higher learning, especially universities. There is a very big information gap that exists between poor and working class children who typically attend rural government schools in comparison to learners of middle-class parents who generally attend former Model C and private schools (DOHET, 2010).

The Numbers of working class students who now have access to institutions of higher learning has increased significantly since 1994 democratic dispensation (DoHET, 2010). For example, In the past decade the South African Government has invested R12 Billion to ensure that 659 000 students from poor backgrounds have entered through the gates of various South African Universities for the past decade (DoHET, 2010).

However, this increase in access to higher education by underprivileged learners has unfortunately been met by a number of grave shortcomings (DoHET, 2010). These include very high dropout rates, with the minority of these students completing their studies and ultimately graduating. The ministerial review committee on the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) found that 67% of the students funded through NSFAS since the year 2000 are no longer studying. Of this 67%, 72% dropped out without graduating or completing their studies and only 28% graduated (DoHET, 2010).

In trying to address the above-mentioned structural challenges facing our education system, during 2011 academic year, Mukovhe Morris Masutha, then SRC President at Wits University, along with fellow Wits student, Ntandokabawo James, piloted a career guidance and motivational mentorship project in rural Limpopo Province to respond to the challenges. The Initiative has since evolved from a two-man project to an organization of 18 student/graduate volunteers reaching out to the lives of over 10 000 rural and township high school leaners in rural parts of Limpopo, KZN and Sharpeville township.



Objective:

The broader objective of this project is to bridge the higher education information gap that exist between rural and urban high school learners in order to provide each learner with an equal opportunity to access institutions of higher education and to reduce the high dropout rates of poor students in institutions of higher learning. We intend to achieve this through comprehensive career guidance and motivational mentorship workshops led and implemented by young university students and graduates. We further intend to increase the pass rate of rural high school learners through the distribution of study guides and additional learning materials in rural and township high schools.

We intend to grow the number of our volunteers to 1000 countrywide and reach out to over 200 000 leaners by 2015.