What did you do this weekend? And, more importantly, what did it cost you?
If you’re part of a “typical” middle-income family, you probably spent between R200 and R400 on takeaways. Do this twice a week (which is what food delivery apps says most South Africans do) and that’s between R1 600 and R3 200 out of your pocket every month for convenience sake—not because there isn’t any food in your fridge.
But what if this month you channelled the money you normally spend on one or two of those takeaway sessions into something different? Something that could make a dramatic difference to a young person’s life?
Yes, that’s right. I’m talking about donating your takeaway money to a worthy cause like SAICA’s Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund.
No, I know what you’re thinking: “It costs over over R150 000 to fund a BCom CA-Stream student’s varsity tuition every year, how will my R200 or R400 make any difference?”
The good news is that it will; Llet me show you how:
The Thuthuka team and I have done a quick calculation using the average cost* for a student studying the CA-route who lives on campus and we’ve discovered that it costs:
- R60 to feed a Thuthuka student one meal— that’s R180 per day to ensure a student gets breakfast, lunch and dinner
- R300 for a Thuthuka student to attend a day’s worth of lectures
- R400 for a Thuthuka student to sleep in res every night
- R800 for just one of the 10 textbooks that a Thuthuka student needs every year
* Amounts are based on the average cost for a Thuthuka recipient
This just goes to show you that a small sacrifice from you can make a huge difference in the life of a student.
So how do you get involved?
It’s simple really…
To make a once-off donation to Thuthuka, simply visit Thuthuka’s Pledge Page on the SAICA website. Alternatively, if you’re really passionate about helping a Thuthuka student fund his/her studies, why not consider setting a debit order—Thuthuka’s Business Development Manager, Mandisi Nombebe (Ma******@sa***.za) will be happy to send you banking details to help you do that. And remember, Thuthuka issues a Section 18A for every donation received which means that you not only get to help a student but you get to take advantage of the tax benefits too.
Oh, and while you’re at it, if you’re a MySchool Card holder, please make Thuthuka a beneficiary on your card.
That way Thuthuka will earn 0.5% of the value of your spend when you swipe your MySchool card at one of 1 600 nationwide partner stores including Woolworths, Engen, Altech Netstar, Waltons, Jacks Paint and many more.
It costs you nothing to make Thuthuka a beneficiary to your MySchool Card and you can do it by visiting www.myschool.co.za and updating the beneficiaries attached to your profile. (If you do not have a card yet, you can sign up on the website or download the app to start earning Thuthuka funds today.)
So what are you waiting for?
Start making a difference to a student’s life today. It all adds up and you can make a huge difference.
The objective of SAICA’s Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fundis to provide educational support to African and Coloured students in order to transform the demographics of the chartered accountancy profession to reflect those of the country in terms of race and gender.
Since launching 21 years ago, the Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fundhas supported over 3 000 aspiring CAs(SA) through their university studies and created more than 1 500 qualified CAs(SA) – this is an amazing feat considering that it takes a minimum of seven years to qualify. Taking on a new first-year cohort of roughly 300 students every year since its inception, the Thuthuka Bursary currently supports around 1 000 fully funded students at different levels of study ranging from first year to postgraduate level at.
