RAGE: What Your Support has Achieved
The RAGE Campaign has been running since the beginning of August and the organisers are very excited about the support that they have received from both the internal and external sponsors. SuperCare and Fedics have donated roughly 100 tins each and Madibaz Café and Fat Cat Catering have made donations of food products. In total, the campaign has received 637 tins from internal sponsors and companies alone.
Many of the external sponsors that were approached have been working alongside the VC in his Mount Fiji expedition, but one to note is Radisson Blu’s generous donation of a R500 food voucher to the greatest donator to the Campaign.
In terms of residences; Sanlam Village has donated 2 boxes of tinned foods and Melodi Residence has donated 1 box. The Student Representative Council (SRC) has orchestrated weekly door-to-door drives to collect any donations of tins or money from the residences, which have been very supportive. The Campaign has been able to raise R240 from these students alone.
“The Residences have been amazing in their support towards the Campaign, particularly in their door-to-door drives,” Siwa Dalima, founder of RedOrg said.
NMMU’s societies have also been very supportive of the Campaign; the Black Lawyers Association (BLA) and Red Cross have both made generous donations.
“Although this has been a student movement, there are many staff members that have been directly involved,” Anele Zondi, Deputy President of the SRC stated. Student Governance has been involved with marketing the Campaign and helping with sponsorships. There have been staff members that have kept tins and boxes in their offices, encouraging other staff to donate to the Campaign.
Financially, sponsorships have been made to particular cases, rather than to the Campaign as a whole. One particular case is of a post-graduate student who was denied her bursary at the beginning of the year and has been sleeping outside of the labs on campus. The RAGE Campaign was able to profile her and submit a request to Student Housing to pay for her accommodation, to which they agreed as part of their contribution.
“The little money that we are raising from students will go towards the emergency cases that are brought to our attention,” Zondi went on to say.
Unfortunately the timing of the Campaign has hindered the successes of it. “This has been a learning curve for us. Timing was wrong because we clashed with the VC’s Mount Fiji climb. Next year, we will communicate with all that are involved in order to ensure an even better campaign.”
However, the campaign has been very supportive of other societies and structures that have been running similar and other campaigns over the past month.
“We don’t feel obliged to be the only organisation running such a campaign. At the end of the day, we want to collaborate and say, look, this is what we as a University have achieved for students,” Zondi said.
The one thing that the organisers are most grateful for is that each person that has been involved has stuck to their primary mandate; that this is for the students. Through the Campaign, awareness has been raised for students that are struggling financially and otherwise.
“We had no budget for the Campaign. All the expenses have been paid for by the organisers and volunteers chipping in. Everyone has been willing and supportive because it’s for their classmates or their neighbours.”
The Campaign has been extended until the end of the year. There will be no more activities, but students are still encouraged to donate tins and money which can be dropped off at the Student Governance buildings on all campuses.