| The University of Johannesburg received a bursary donation of R560 000 from the South African National Zakáh Fund (SANZAF) this week. |
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| 2013/07/01 04:00 PM |
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SANZAF is a faith-based, socio-welfare and educational organisation that assists needy families and provides bursaries to university students.
Mohammed Hoosen Essof, SANZAF Administrator and Nerosha Ahmed, Human Resource and Bursary Co-ordinator at SANZAF, presented a cheque to UJ’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Internationalisation, Advancement and Student Affairs, Professor Tinyiko Maluleke.
“UJ is honoured to be a recipient of this generous donation. Our students are primarily first generation, therefore bursary support of this nature helps to meet the on-going financial need of many of our students. We thank SANZAF for their funding and hope to partner with other organisations and corporates in order to build a strong bursary network at UJ,” says Prof Maluleke.
Nerosha Ahmed is also a recent UJ BCom graduate and has found a novel way to give back to her alma mater.She says that she chose to study at UJ because the university has always had a reputation of providing a quality and cost-effective education, as well as championing a strong focus on innovation.
“As a UJ Alumna, what I love most about the university is its respect for diversity. Before embarking on tertiary education, I was only exposed to a primarily Indian school, so it was really refreshing being able to interact with various students from different ethnic and cultural groups,” says Nerosha.
A total of 550 students nationwide are supported by an annual budget of R10 million. There are currently 28 students on the SANZAF bursary programme studying various courses at the University of Johannesburg.
SANZAF will turn 40 next year and has been awarding bursaries to deserving students for almost 16 years. “We have supported UJ students with funding support since the inception of the programme, with a noticeable increase of funding to UJ in the last 4-5 years,” says Mohammed Essof.
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