Gillitts, South Africa – School-Days, a bursary-building platform for South African families, recently gave four young South Africans R25,000 bursaries to use towards education fees.
Through School-Days, anyone has the power to build their own bursary to pay towards their family’s fees. Over 300,000 people are already putting the future of education in their hands by building School-Days bursaries. To celebrate the launch of the Dis-Chem FOR YOUTH card with fanfare, School-Days gave four lucky winners a massive bursary head start. Carey-Ann Jane was one of them. This is her story:
“I was raised by a single mother and grew up in Mitchell’s plain. I’m the youngest of two girls. At the age of 18, after I had matriculated, I decided to start working because my mom was struggling financially. My sister was a law student at UWC, and my mom couldn’t afford to have both children at tertiary institutions.
After five years of working in a call centre, I decided that I want to study education, as I felt a strong passion for helping build a foundation in young children’s lives. I feel that the Early Childhood Development (ECD) field is often overlooked, especially in poor communities. That is why so many children struggle when they go to Primary School, because their foundation wasn’t laid properly when they were in the crèche stage.”
Carey-Ann completed her Early Childhood Development N6 at Cape Town College then applied for an internship student post with Multichoice at their Montessori school in Randburg. She was accepted, with the proviso that she enrolled with the South African Montessori Association and furthered her studies from March this year. The cost? A daunting R58,000 for the next eighteen months! Carey-Ann has been saving every Rand that she can to pursue her teaching career.
“In December 2018, I was disappointed when management called me into a meeting to tell me that they will no longer pay for my studies, and that if I want to continue working there I will have to pay my own way. After much thought, I decided to continue living in Johannesburg and make the sacrifice to pay for my own studies to benefit my future.
The bursary from School-Days could not have come at a better time. When I found out that I won the bursary, I was speechless, lost for words, overwhelmed and excited. I ran to my Head of Department to share my wonderful news with her. I could not believe it. I was jumping for joy! This bursary has helped me to continue my dream of becoming a qualified Montessori Directress. Before, I was so stressed about the fees and didn’t know how I will manage to afford them; now, I am now able to study without financial stress.
My studies are going well. We just started in March this year so everything is still new. I am settling in very well and getting used to my new routine. School Days helped me to achieve my first goal this year (my Montessori studies), so now I am working towards my second goal, which is to get my Driver’s License.
Other than my studies, my plan is to finish my practical hours for my ECD certificate. On completion of my hours, will I again graduate with my N-Diploma in ECD. Once I have passed my Driver’s test, would I like to become a weekend au-pair, as my ultimate goal for the year of 2019 is to become debt free.
All I can say to fellow South Africans is not to give up on your dreams, and to continue to work hard – hard work does pay off. Thank you so much to School-Days for giving me the opportunity to study my desired career choice and making my dream come true. Education is knowledge, and knowledge is power. It’s important to educate yourself to grow in life and to live a better life for myself and my family.”
A School-Days bursary is for everyone
Carey-Ann had a massive head start with her bursary by winning the bursary competition, but anyone is able to build a School-Days bursary for their own family’s education. When it comes to planning for the future, every little bit helps. That’s why more and more people are joining the education revolution, taking the future of education into their hands through School-Days.
School-Days raises R18 million for South Africans’ school fees
The School-Days bursary building platform is revolutionising the way that South Africans are paying for their education! School-Days has created over R18 million for its members’ school, college and university fees. They do this by sourcing multiple channels of getting free money, consolidated into your single bursary account. For example, when you join School-Days (for free) and shop at School-Days Partners, you get a percentage of your spend added to your personal education bursary. This is just one of the ways to build your bursary; there are a number of other easy ways too, like making direct contributions and benefitting when friends and family spend at our Partners.
Click here to join School-Days and start building a bursary for your family’s education: https://www.schooldays.co.za/#join-today.
ABOUT SCHOOL-DAYS
School-Days gives you the opportunity to build a bursary for your family’s school, college and university fees, helping you provide for their education. The platform is simple, and building a bursary is easy.
Have more questions about School-Days?
- Visit www.schooldays.co.za.
- Get in touch with the member support team at [email protected].
- Give School-Days a call on 086 999 0105.
ABOUT DIS-CHEM FOR YOUTH
Dis-Chem FOR YOUTH is Dis-Chem’s benefit programme for customers between the ages of 18 and 25 years. Customers can sign up for the Dis-Chem FOR YOUTH programme in-store, online, or via the Dis-Chem app. They can then get their card immediately in store, and earn rewards when they shop and swipe their card.
Dis-Chem FOR YOUTH members are signed up automatically for School-Days, which means that they also grow their own education bursaries when they shop at Dis-Chem and use the other School-Days bursary building blocks.
