Nelson Mandela University offers financial assistance to full-time students in the form of bursaries, merit awards, Vice-Chancellor's scholarships, and study loans. Assistance is based on financial need and/or academic excellence and sporting achievements.

However, the academically achieving students needing financial assistance are growing and with the country's economic challenges due to the pandemic, universities do not have the financial capacity and adequate resources to do much more to assist students or to provide free education

The protests at the beginning of each year at South African universities due to lack of funding for registration, tuition, accommodation, and food for these students, emphasises the need for assistance for undergraduate students and those who have completed their studies.

You can help by:

• Paying registration fees for students who have been accepted to study at the university, but who cannot afford the initial payment/registration fees.
• Providing emergency accommodation to students who arrive at the university hoping to have their application finalised. These students often land up sleeping in unsafe spaces.
• Creating food security for students who cannot be expected to study or write exams on empty stomachs. Many of these students wait for months on end for their NSFAS food allowances to be paid.
• Paying off debt for graduates who have completed their studies but cannot graduate due to outstanding fees. These students cannot find employment because they cannot produce their qualification certificates.

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Nelson Mandela University’s Ocean Sciences campus established in 2017 is a hub for creative, pioneering transdisciplinary, postgraduate ocean sciences research, teaching, innovation, and engagement that will build, maintain and develop critical mass and strategic impact in key niche areas.

The mission of the campus will span the three interdependent spheres of sustainability being the promotion of sustainable livelihoods for coastal communities by tapping the economic potential of the oceans while preserving marine biodiversity and ecological integrity for the benefit of future generations.

Based on the Ocean Science campus are several research chairs and entities including:

• Law of the Sea and Development in Africa
• Ocean Science & Food Security
• Marine Spatial Planning
• Shallow Water Ecosystems
• Oceans, Culture and Heritage
• The FishFORCE Academy
• The Marine Robotic Centre
• A Drone Unit for maritime, safety, surveillance and related applications

Donations towards these chairs and entities would make a significant impact on the goal of economic growth and development while supporting livelihoods and the health of the ocean.

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Amid the uncertainty that the Covid-19 pandemic brought, Nelson Mandela University opened its medical school – the 10^th in South Africa – at its Missionvale campus last year.

Why give to the Mandela University Medical School?

• It uses an innovative, transformative, distributive teaching model with an emphasis on comprehensive primary health care and preventative medicine with a focus on leveraging the benefits of technology to deliver effective health professions education.
• Its transformative interprofessional education model (IPE) will see doctors study and develop alongside nurses, radiographers, psychologists, environmental health practitioners, pharmacists, emergency medical care students, and the like, to offer holistic and integrated health care that instils a multidisciplinary approach to health problems and solutions.
• The Faculty of Health Sciences’ health care ethos includes an integration of preventative, promotive, curative and innovative healthcare.
• The Mandela University six-year, MBChB degree (a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) aims to produce graduates who fulfil all the graduate attributes as defined by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and go beyond, all in a unique, community- focused setting.

The Nelson Mandela Medical School provides an opportunity to shape local and national history through producing doctors that are well-versed in global health challenges and solutions and inspired to plough back lessons learnt into our communities through dedicated service. 

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The objectives of the Mandela University Convergence Fund include:

1. Mobilising resources for the University to contribute directly to challenges facing communities in aftermath of the pandemic.
2. Enabling the University to partner with a range of stakeholder-communities, including civil society organisations, NGOs and other relevant structures to address poverty, deprivation and hunger in a pragmatic and practical manner.
3. Providing the University community with a practical mechanism for expressing solidarity by donating funding to address inequalities in our society.
4. Giving practical expression to our value of Ubuntu.
5. Helping to foster a more humane society.
6. Advancing the programmatic development of the Hubs of Convergence, buttressed on the principles of convergence, reciprocity, and multiple forms of output, at Mandela University.

Transformative Engagement through the Hubs of Convergence. 

The Hubs of Convergence (HoC) is envisioned as a collaborative equalising multi-stakeholder space of exploration for the positioning and re-positioning of the engagement and transformation interface of Nelson Mandela University. It is both a feasible and doable option for reimagining the institution as a university in service of society. Several projects are undertaken by the Hubs of Convergence, as outlined below:

Zwide Community Development Project

The Zwide Community Development Project is an initiative driven by Zwide Community members in convergence with the HoC. The community, alongside the HoC are exploring developmental projects for alleviation of poverty in Zwide, Gqeberha. The various individually led organizations within the Zwide Community acknowledge that they have several developmental activities and infrastructure in the area. However, there is a need for support in terms of planning, conceptualization and funding of these projects. Some of the challenges identified by the community include extreme poverty, abuse of drugs, gangsterism and unemployment.

The Zwide Community Development Project envisions the establishment of developmental projects including:

• Skills Development Centre.
• Community Kitchens and Home Gardening.
• Educational Academy.
• Arts and Culture Development Centre.
• Sports Academy.
• Environmental Programmes.

Gender Based Violence Group

This forum brings together Mandela University stakeholders - HIV Unit and Transformation Office along with local NGOs and CBOs focused on various aspects of gender-based violence. The purpose of the forum is to foster collaboration between fellow member organisations, build a network for understanding each other’s work, and a supportive environment for organisational development. 

Areas requiring support are:

• GBV, HIV and Mental Health Awareness Campaigns.
• Support for Health Professionals, Caretakers and Community Leaders.
• Empowerment Programmes and Initiatives driven towards Children, Women, Men and Queer Communities. 

The Sewing Project

The Sewing Project endeavours to source and distribute masks, as well as to develop economic initiatives within local, marginalised communities in Gqeberha. In 2021, possibilities emerged to build small sewing enterprises or cooperatives along with stakeholder communities, through collaboration with Manyano Schools and the Association for People with Physical Disabilities (APD).

Manyano Schools has identified two people from within each of the schools’ communities who are interested in this programme, and the schools will work with their associated participants to develop possibilities for acting as the first ‘client’ for respective sewing enterprises. APD has for twenty (20) years run a sewing enterprise on their premises, has facilities to offer sewing training, and is committed to mentoring participants through the process of establishing their own small enterprises. 

Funding towards this project would assist in providing logistical support (transportation, stationery, catering, printing and consultations for the following):

• Committee Strategic Sessions.
• Workshops: Solidarity Economy/ Cooperatives.
• Workshops: Funding Proposal Development.

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