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REAP Partners
REAP has a wide network of Higher Education Institution (HEI), Funding and Recruitment partners who assist us in providing the best possible support to our students.

Higher Education Institution (HEI) Partners

National Skills Fund (NSF)

A recent partnership with the Department of Higher Education & Training's National Skills Fund has enabled REAP to offer full-cost bursaries to 335 of our students. The Government's new National Skills Strategy strongly emphasises rural skills development and they have allocated substantial funds to REAP to facilitate increased access to higher education.

National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)

REAP is in partnership with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. NSFAS provides study loans at reduced interest rates to students with academic potential in need of financial assistance. Good academic performance can convert up to 40% of the loan to a bursary. An annual allocation of NSFAS loan finance is set aside to provide loans to students with REAP. In this way marginalised students from far flung rural areas are provided an opportunity to study at university.


View more HEI Partners

Eastern Cape

Free State

Gauteng

North West

Limpopo

Kwa-Zulu Natal

Western Cape
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Funding Partners

   Other funding partners:

  • Lord & Lady Laidlaw Foundation
  • Bernadette Leon
  • Doňa Francisca Diez Rivera
  • Cheryl Phillips
  • Catherine Stone
Meet David Harrison
Chief Executive Officer - The DG Murray Trust

REAP's greatest strength lies in its understanding that school marks are not the best predictor of academic achievement at tertiary level.  What really counts is whether students feel supported and included, and can find ways to deal with their family circumstances back home.  REAP's model of psychosocial support to students who receive its bursaries has been shown to work, and provides critical lessons for the implementation of the National Students' Financial Assistance Scheme.  In this regard, this is a great opportunity for a new type of social contract between Government and civil society, where State financing of tertiary education is backed up by continuing student interaction and support by organisations such as REAP.  It's the experience of the DG Murray Trust that REAP is an extremely good custodian of funds, efficient in operation and able to target young people with great potential, in greatest need.

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Recruitment Partners
Meet Aubrey Chabedi
Regional Recruitment Representative in Klerksdorp

Aubrey Chabedi is one REAP's long-standing recruitment volunteers. The late Father Louis Van den Broeck introduced Aubrey to REAP in 2001 and he has been assisting us ever since.

Aubrey works in the Diocese of Klerksdorp where the main towns are Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom, Fochville, Ventersdorp, Orkney, Lichtenburg, Coligny, Hartebeesfontein, Delareyville, Wolmaransstad, Leeudoringstad, Makwassie, Bloemhof and Schweizer Reneke. He helps us identify candidates from poor rural areas, who meet the necessary academic requirements, but are financially unable to access tertiary education. He walks a road with them by providing career guidance as well as assistance with the various application processes required to obtain either a full-cost bursary or a subsidised loan.

When asked what inspires him to assist REAP in this way, Aubrey responds: "I come from a very poor family. The first help of R500 that I received in order to be able to register for my BSc degree at Fort Hare University was from the Educational Assistance Scheme. This was just to give me access to tertiary education, almost like what REAP is doing. All I had to do was focus and pass with good marks in order to attract bursaries. From my second year onwards, bursaries just came flowing in and I was able to stop my mother from having to send me pocket money. Instead, I was maintaining her from university because she was retrenched while I was studying. I, in a way, managed to break poverty in my family. I always relate my story to the learners whom I recruit for REAP and this serves as an inspiration and motivation to them as well. I enjoy seeing people succeed and I feel very proud and fulfilled when I meet them later in life."

Aubrey has seen lives change as a result of the support they get from REAP. "You educate one child in the family, you educate the whole family, especially if the first one to achieve is able to help others. I have personally experienced this and I see it happening to the families of the children that REAP is helping."

REAP would like to thank Aubrey for ploughing back into the community and for being a faithful and reliable recruiter.

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