‘Student advocacy’ fights financial hardship

A group of Health Sciences students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) are doing more than studying. They are actively fundraising to ensure their peers can afford to stay enrolled and complete their degrees. 

Members of the Health Sciences Students’ Council (HSSC) Fundraising Committee shared how they are revitalising the Impilo Relief Fund through proactive, student-led advocacy, new partnerships, and a commitment to keeping financial hardship from ending promising careers before they even begin.  

“For years, the Impilo Relief Fund operated largely on the strength of generous, passive donations: well-intentioned, but episodic and subject to fluctuations in our economic climate. The shift our cohort tried to make was a deliberate one – to treat the fund not as a charity box that occasionally fills, but as an active campaign that warrants year-round attention. Proactive, student-led advocacy is the conviction that the people closest to a problem are often best positioned to articulate it, and that students need not wait for permission from institutions to act on the welfare of their peers,” explained former deputy chairperson of HSSC 2025, Rahul Rama-Panchia.  

Fellow committee member and Master of Public Health student Titi Khoza noted: “What first struck me was learning that students in the 1990s had already started raising funds for fee relief and that the same fight is still ongoing decades later. That speaks to the persistence of the problem. What stands out most for me is the relief fund itself because there are students whose futures genuinely depend on it – particularly during the December/January period – when students are uncertain whether they will be able to re-register; whether they will keep their place in residence; and whether it is even worth making the journey back to Cape Town,” said Khoza. 

Human value  

Said Kwandiso Ngubane, former chairperson of HSSC: “I have witnessed firsthand the impact of financial exclusion, and the very real threat of it – the result of inadequate funding and, more recently, National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) accommodation fee caps that have placed additional strain on already vulnerable students. It has been heartbreaking to watch academically capable and deserving students face potential exclusion. 

“It has been heartbreaking to watch academically capable and deserving students face potential exclusion.”

“Following student fee protests, those of us on last year’s Council sat down and asked: What can we do, as students, to help one another? We had appealed to the university and the faculty, but what they were able to offer was unfortunately … not enough. We decided then that we would not be complacent. We would need to take initiative and fundraise. That decision – the refusal to simply accept the situation – is the human value at the heart of this work.” 

MBChB final-year student Mbasa Vapi said: “Our approach is not centred on urgency alone – it is centred on building meaningful, sustainable relationships with stakeholders who can see themselves as long-term partners in this work. The fund’s engagement with donors is ongoing throughout the year and not limited to the crisis period at the start of the academic year, even though that is when financial hardship is most visible.” 

The university noted in its 2024 annual report that the increasing level of student debt remains a significant concern. It is further compounded by the implementation of the NSFAS-imposed fee cap. “UCT … supports student centred initiatives such as crowdfunding campaigns … [and] while systemic challenges within the national higher education funding landscape remain, the university remains committed to developing responsible, equitable and sustainable solutions that uphold institutional financial stability while supporting student success,” the report reads. 

“I think about the times I had to borrow equipment from classmates because I could not afford my own.” 

“The most significant evolution of the Impilo Fund this year is the committee itself and all the initiatives it is driving. With a dedicated committee in place, the fund has become more active and visible,” said Vapi, with Khoza adding: “This has been one of the most challenging initiatives I have taken on because it forces you to be a reflective human being. You are not looking at the problem from the outside – you are internalising it because as a student you have most probably lived through versions of the same struggles. When I see WiZmed – a student-founded initiative established by current and former UCT medical students – now donating clinical equipment to their fellow students, I think about the times I had to borrow equipment from classmates because I could not afford my own. That is what makes this work both difficult and deeply meaningful: you are doing it for other students, but you are also doing it for the first-year version of yourself who did not know what came next.” 

Keep knocking 

The fundraising space is extremely competitive, particularly in the medical field, where numerous institutions are vying for the same pool of donors. Said Rama-Panchia: “The funding environment in higher education is unforgiving, and student-led initiatives compete for attention with institutions that have decades of relationships and full-time development teams behind them. Sustaining partnerships requires the same care as initiating them, and our committee is intentional about not treating donors and collaborators as one-time transactions. Practically, this means consistent reporting back and relationship building; and sharing the impact narratives of students who have benefited from fee relief, so that partners such as WiZmed and Gift of the Givers can see the difference their contribution has made.” 

“The Impilo Relief Fund carries a name we do not invoke lightly.” 

Ngubane is clear: there is still a while to go to reach targets but the journey to get there is worth the stewardship. “The fulfilment is real. It comes from seeing students take charge of their own education: taking initiative, refusing to be passive in the face of a problem, and actively working toward solutions. It comes from knowing that we are keeping our peers’ dreams alive – the dream of graduating and returning to the communities that raised us, to give back.” 

In conclusion, the team ended on a positive note. “I hope future committees continue strengthening stakeholder relationships, improving the fund’s visibility, and creating systems that ensure long-term continuity and impact. Student support is a shared responsibility. The realities faced by many students extend far beyond academics, and initiatives like the Impilo Relief Fund play an important role in ensuring that financial hardship does not become a permanent barrier,” Vapi noted. 

Ngubane added: “Not all doors will open. In fact, the majority of responses you receive will be rejections. You have to keep knocking regardless. That quality – the willingness to persist without guarantees – is, I think, the most important one this work has demanded of me. Fundraising is not the most sustainable or ideal long-term solution to structural underfunding but while better solutions are being fought for, it is one of the most immediate ones available to us.” 

“Funds like this one work toward making quality education genuinely accessible.” 

Khoza remarked: “Policies that improve access are important, but access to a university place and the ability to stay there are two very different things. Fees become another systematic barrier that can undo years of hard work: students who have fought through primary school, through high school, through their academic years can find their degree taken away simply because they cannot pay. That is not equity. Funds like this one work toward making quality education genuinely accessible.” 

Rama-Panchia concluded: “Impilo – the Zulu and Xhosa word for ‘life’ – is a name this fund carries with full intention. For the students who benefit from its relief, it is not merely a financial lifeline. It is life breathed back into a career that might otherwise have ended quietly, behind a fee statement. The Impilo Relief Fund thus carries a name we do not invoke lightly. Professor Bongani Mayosi believed deeply that the Faculty of Health Sciences must be a place where excellence and access are not in tension, and the fundraising committee is one ongoing attempt to honour that conviction in practice.”