The UWC Fairy Godmother is back to sprinkling her magic around the university, helping students in need by granting small wishes.
Cape Town, South Africa (08 February 2022) – The University of Western Cape has a Fairy Godmother that has been helping students pay for things they can’t afford to do on their own. We shared the Facebook group’s information in 2019 so that people in need could get help and people with the means to help, could support students in need.
The Fairy Godmother has kept herself anonymous and uses the platform to connect donor funds to students who need their wishes granted. The typical wishes she receives are for help with food, transport money, and study materials. Most students have either accessed bursaries that cover their schooling, or they have taken out loans, so when it comes to mealtime, they are left to fend for themselves.
The entire system runs anonymously; each student is issued a number, so no private information is ever shared, and donors are never named either. By running things this way, the impact is more significant. These students know someone out there cares without the ‘charity for publicity’ aspect.
Some donors help specific students while others just donate, and the money gets allocated to various wishes.
The fairy godmother continued to support her students through the lockdown where and how she could. She shared with us that they had record-breaking help for the first three months of lockdown. Now that things are going back to normal, the fairy shared how people can help.
“This month, February, is statistically the hungriest month of the year for students. It’s the month they have to fork out for registration fees, bus tickets back to Cape Town, deposits on new rental accommodation, new textbooks for the year, etc. So we could really use all the help we can get this month!”
Some of the wishes granted this year included helping one student who recently graduated, with smart clothing for her first job. Another was helped with bags filled with groceries. A wish still needing to be granted, a young student broke their phone, and they cannot afford to repair it. If you want to get involved as a donor, you can contact the fairy via Facebook or email.
We love this concept, offering a little help to our future leaders, doctors, lawyers, writers and more.
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