Vuyo Raymond Matinyana Fund bursaries for students from Nelson Mandela Township

Don't let our youth wait without a future, support the Matinyana Fund!

In 1999 Vuyo Raymond Matinyana started a student bursary fund for youth from his township Nemato. Due to poverty many youth don't have money to go to university and don't get a chance to get out of poverty. With his bursary fund, talented youth get a change to study and make a better future for themselves, their families, the community and the country.
In 2001 Raymond passed away and the fund was renamed after him.

A better future for our disadvantaged youth

The Matinyana Fund is a small but very successful student bursary fund for students from Nelson Mandela Township. The selection of students is in the hands of Dr. Isaac Mabindisa. All his life he worked in education for universities in South Africa and Canada. This gave him excellent skills to select and advise our students.

The level of education in our township schools is at a very low level. The old apartheid regime successfully designed a township educational system to keep the black population stupid. Our current teachers grew up in that system. Many don't have the skills and knowledge to do their job. That demotivates both the teachers and the learners with a disastrous effect on the level of education. It is among the lowest in the world.

Our Nemato Sports Federation has build its own classroom and we started homework classes for our rowers. Soon we'll include a soccer team into the program and in a later stage our new gymnastics club. Hopefully from here the school results will improve and we'll be able to offer more learners a fair change to prepare for university. With our federation and our fund we are making a real change for a better future of our youth!

No support without Your support!

Our fund can't do anything without your support. Please donated!

Our students

Our small fund is supporting students, boys and girls, in many different different subjects like medicine, nursing and psychology, tourism and sports management, science, information technology and chemistry, civil engineering and architecture, just to name a few.
In our Students Report you'll find a complete overview of all Matinyana Fund students in 2009 and 2010.

Here are some of our graduated students:

	This is Phumlani Tjabazajo. For five years he has been waiting in the township for a chance to study. When the Matinyana Fund gave him the chance, he took it with both hands and his career took off like a rocket. He studied law at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. He did not fail a single subject in his entire study and got more than 15 distinctions. Even before he finished his studies, he already got a job at a lawyers office. Just a few years later, he is now working as a prosecutor!
	This is Sizwe Mjacu. He studied Public Administration at the University of Fort Hare, the same university where Nelson Mandela studied. Two years in a row he received awards as the best student in his subject. He represented his university at a conference of the United Nations in Pretoria, where he did a presentation about Africa's relations with the United Nations. He worked for our local Ndlambe municipality. Now he is doing his PhD at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. He is also a columnist for our local newspaper the Talk of the Town, critically looking at our local government.
	Letter from Luzamo Sandlana To the Matinyana Fund I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Matinyana Fund bursary scheme. The bursary has assisted me in completing my two university qualifications, a BA Degree at the University of the Western Cape, and a Post-Graduate Journalism Diploma at Rhodes. I am currently working as a Media Liaison Officer for the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority, TCTA, in Pretoria. This is a parastatal under the Department of Water Affairs and is specialising in the implementation and funding of raw bulk water infrastructure. Without the Matinyana Fund I cannot even imagine where I would be, but I do know that I would not be where I am today. I hope a lot more youth from Port Alfred is yet to benefit from the fund. To Prof. and Jan, keep up the good work, and may God bless you.

Matinyana Fund organisation

• Office and board members
• Financial report (a pdf document)
• Bursary application form (a pdf document)

Computer Project

The Matinyana Fund also had a computer project. We collected computers in Europe and shipped them to Port Alfred for the local schools. Most of our township and farm schools are using these computers now. We are not collecting computers anymore. The Matinyana Fund focuses now entirely on its student bursaries program.