Two University of Free State employees have donned their sports attire and embarked on a 1000km walk to Cape Town to highlight the plight of starving students at the institution.
Nontokozo Nkabinde and Adele van Aswegen left Bloemfontein on May 1 and were joined by two residents Ronél Warner and Nico Piedt.
They are fundraising for the university’s No Student Hungry bursary established by vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen three years ago.
The bursary is awarded to financially needy students and good academic performers who are committed to community development.
About 120 students receive the bursary annually. They receive R30 a day for meals.
Nkabinde said she could not bear to see a student’s struggle to obtain an education compounded by hunger, and decided to take up the challenge.
Private companies had already donated more than R435 000 towards the bursary.
“We work closely with the students and we know how they struggle to get into university and they have got the brains and willpower but something as simple as a meal is holding them back,” said Nkabinde.
“An internal study was done last year to determine the real needs of the students and we found that almost 59% of the students are facing food scarcity.”
Van Aswegen echoed her colleague’s sentiments.
“We get students with seven distinctions and their tuition fees and accommodation money is paid but they don’t have meals. That is where I decided to jump in and get people involved,” she said.
“We have had to stay alert on the N1 to be safe with the trucks passing by. The people on the farms are welcoming us into their homes. Some people mistake it for a fun walk. Some days are tougher than others. We have to deal with muscle pain on our own as we don’t have a medical team backing us up.”
The team, which is expected to reach Cape Town on June 3, will enter Touwsrivier, which is 160km from the Mother City, Monday.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
