Personal message

My daughter really loves South Africa. She is 23 years of age, completed her BSc in Architecture at UP, and decided to take a gap year abroad to see what the world is doing differently from our country to ensure sustainable cities and spaces. She's been living and working in Long Island since January 2023.

Her experience of the US has been an enlightening one. She found that there are exceptional opportunities for further learning, and a safe environment where she has quickly found strong aliances and good support networks - local and quite a number of fellow SA citizens.

During the last 6 months and after much research, she has come to the conclusion that studying for her masters in New York at the NY School of Interior Design, will be highly beneficial for her career trajectory.  She worked diligently on an exceptional portfolio which was submitted on 5 January 2024. She got accepted into the New York SID last week. She is over the moon. And we believe this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

She is a self starter, exceptionally creative, a Believer and a hard worker, ethical, dedicated to finish what she starts, performance driven, and open minded to take on new challenges.

Our next grand challenge is to help her to raise some of the 70 000+ dollars that will cover all her cost for a year. She needs some help. And being mindful that there are so many other really dire situations in this world... every 10 dollars will ultimately go a really long way. So if we don't try, we won't know. And we do not take this lightly! Note that every dollar donated goes directly into the account of the NYSID, and not into a personal account. The donations will be managed in a fully transparent manner and only towards her tuition.

Study alone will cost in the region of 42 000 dollars. Thereafter we need to look into accommodation and daily stipend. She will also be doing her part - looking into any and all kinds of internships or fellowships to raise additional funds. And thereafter she'll go the way of a study loan. Somehow, she will make this happen. This young lady is determined to see this through. Thank you so so so  much for reading, for praying, for giving. 

Crumbling infrastructurse and poor maintanence of everything that determine quality of life in South africa, are unfortunately a sad reality. She is determined to find sustainable solutions in the sphere of architecture, interior architecture and integration of AI tecnologies to bridge gaps between somehing on the verge of collapsing, and identifying probable solutions timeously in order to meet challenges in a proactive manner.

SA institutions are doing what they can to deliver to market well trained graduates in the built environment professions. It is simply not sufficient to address our country's dire sustainable infrastructure needs, not to speak of the lack of employment and mentoring opportunities for our young people.

South Africa has too much to offer the world to let it go to waste! Please give her a chance to study abroad and bring her skills set back to our beautiful country to do her small part in creating solutions in green design and collaborative sustainable spaces.

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