Crowdfunding website aims to alleviate fees crisis

Student funding has been a source of constant debate since the #FeesMustFall protest broke out in 2015.

Students in need of funding can now sign up and create an online profile where donors will be able to access their profiles and provide funding. 

Feenix’s interim CEO Jayshree Naidoo says both individuals and corporations will be able to make donations. 

"If you want to fund a potential student, you go onto the platform, register your profile, select a student and make a payment. The donation can be anything from R100 upwards. The payment is made directly to the University the student is registered with.  The aim is to address some of the gaps students face when raising money to pay for their fees, so we decided to create a platform where people from across South Africa can get involved.” 

The trust has already raised over R120 000 with over 130 students registered on the platform. Four students have already been fully-funded. 

Naidoo says any student can register, no matter where they are studying or what course they are doing.

"We are hoping this type of platform is going to disrupt the fee crisis we are in, disrupt the way we think about funding students, and disrupt the way in which we as individuals think about the role we can play in making an impact in someone else's lives. Only 17% of the 94% of students that qualify or require funding will recieve it, so there is a huge gap that we have to fill in terms of this missing middle," she says.