Russel Botman Bursary Fund
On 19 September 2021, the world celebrates 100 years since the birth of Paulo Freire, a leading advocate for critical pedagogy. The Brazilian educator and philosopher changed how education was viewed, understood, and experienced. As a scholar of his work, Prof Russel Botman found a friend and colleague in their shared views on life, higher education, and theology. In celebration of this, Russel Botman titled his April 2007 inaugural speech as Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University, ‘A multicultural university with a pedagogy of hope for Africa’.
In his seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968), Freire places the persecuted at the centre of society, arguing that oppressed people can regain their humanity by leading the struggle against inequality, injustice, and discrimination faced within their communities. What captured Prof Botman’s attention the most was the foreword written in celebration of the tenth anniversary of Friere’s work, which subsequently led to a whole new pedagogy of hope. Thus, the Stellenbosch University’s HOPE Project was born, with a vision for higher education and sustainable development and the creation of ‘a university of meaning and significance for South Africa and Africa’ at its core. Through this project, Botman identified dilemmas such as credibility, relevance, student success, human management, and Afro-centricity that needed to be addressed.
In a space influenced by Freire, we at the Russel Botman Fund celebrate the hope that education provides and other scholars across the world. While hope may spur us into the future, we must not only envision one but act on this hope to begin creating a path that others will follow into eternity.
Partner with us to create a pathway that ensures a better future, built on the past pillars and opportunities within the present. Donate towards this inspirational fund today and change the life of someone’s tomorrow.
Generations of women have contributed and are still contributing to making all lives righteous and equal. Therefore, on this Women’s Day, observed 9 August 2021, a generation of women will be speaking to us as part of a global campaign covering the theme, Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights for an Equal Future.
As we take up the challenge and opportunities to further our journey towards equality, let us remember Charlotte Maxeke’s accomplishments. This year we are celebrating Maxeke’s 150 years since birth and the 120 years since she became the first black South African woman to obtain a higher education qualification. Her accomplishments were groundbreaking, considering that she was not allowed to obtain a qualification in her home country. She was also the first black South African female to acquire a bursary opportunity from Wilberforce University, Ohio USA to obtain her BSc degree. She was a remarkable woman, a woman of many firsts, not only on home ground but also abroad. Read more about her in Zubeida Jaffer’s, The life and times of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke (2016).
Because of her achievements, later generations of black women were able to study and obtain bursary opportunities, which was first limited according to apartheid designated institutions. Now we have access to all higher education institutions to follow any course of study, especially at Stellenbosch University. We celebrate strides made by our ancestral role models, realising that the young women of South Africa still need support to reach their potential. The Russel Botman Bursary Fund grants such young women these opportunities. Be part of that global campaign and donate to the fund to sustain such support.
Prof Russel Botman had a clear sense of what the world, and Stellenbosch University (SU) in particular, needed to create opportunities and a future for the next generation. His vision is why we need to commemorate International Youth Day.
This year’s International Youth Day, observed on 12 August 2021, will celebrate all that is under the theme, Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health. This theme touches on three of the five Millennium Goals Russel Botman focused on in his tenure at SU, which endorses the mission of creating a better world.
Prof Botman has inspired the youth with these three goals, which reiterates the theme of this International Youth Day:
1. eradicating poverty and related conditions;
2. promoting human dignity and health; and
3. promoting a sustainable environment and a competitive industry.
Furthermore, the global youth were asked to reflect on the following question: What gives you hope in 2021? Prof Botman had a profound sense that hope is the future. By posing this question to the youth we are consequently responsible to support them. Our support can be shown by providing them with a conducive environment, which is engaging and helpful towards the change in food systems. His legacy demands us to continue to answer this question until there is hope.
In saying this, one of the ways Prof Botman set out to provide hope to our youth was by establishing the Russel Botman Bursary Fund so that students would be able to afford further or higher education and the opportunity to study at SU. These bursary opportunities provide the youth with study opportunities that could promote human and planetary health for all. Without your generous donations, this is not possible. Please donate to the Russel Botman Bursary Fund.
Along with the many protocols and health concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic presents, the recipients of the Russel Botman Bursary Fund and other students face study challenges.
During a support meeting with recipients, they expressed the impact that the changes in learning have on their well-being and studies. They had to adapt from contact learning at school to virtual learning for practically the entire 2020 academic year. Despite these challenges, their resilience saw them through the year successfully. This year they had to revert to contact learning and the adaptation from the first year of university learning is also challenging. The latest changes in the restrictions of adapted Level 4 require a switch in orientation yet again.
These different ways of learning also have social implications and influence how students grow friendships and academic ties. They also must deal with being at home or alone all the time with only virtual social contact during harder lockdown regulations.
We encourage them to make use of the guidance and support shared by Stellenbosch University and to prioritise their well-being. If this support is not offered directly to each student, they should seek it out. We are proud of the resilience they continue to show and hope that all students manage to cope with the recent changes made to COVID-19 guidelines.
They also expressed that the alleviation of financial burden has helped a lot in reducing the stress they experience. This is exactly why we should together secure that their bursary opportunities are sustained. For all our sakes, let us continue to donate generously as an expression of our commitment to the call from former president Nelson Mandela to let our youth learn. Our future is in their hands.
When choosing five of the United Nations millennium development goals, Prof Russel Botman saw the past, reflected on the present, and envisioned the future. Botman not only framed his vision for Stellenbosch University but to the broader society.
Yes, the five areas of development still need attention and hard work. These goals are:
- eradicating poverty and related conditions;
- promoting human dignity and health;
- promoting democracy and human rights;
- promoting peace and security;
- and promoting a sustainable environment and a competitive industry.
These goals formed the basis for the Hope Project that Botman grounded in the education philosophy of Paulo Freire. Botman envisaged a better future when drafting these goals and education philosophy. When reflecting on his approach to framing transformation, it speaks directly to the very issues we are currently still grappling with, not only in South Africa but worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasises the interrelatedness of our global challenges concerning poverty, human dignity, human rights, industry, and the environment.
Botman’s hope that Stellenbosch University prepares future generations to be educated and overcome the potential challenges that hinder this goal. For this hope to stay alive and valid, the Russel Botman Bursary Fund strives to build a better future and believes in creating opportunities. In the hands of future generations, a new future is dawning. Keep hope alive.
By: Dr Beryl Botman
This year started with a very positive outlook on the possibilities of 2020. Early in the year, COVID-19 seemed far away in the east with no real connection to us here on the southern point of Africa. But this was not to be. Today we are in the sixth week of lockdown. The first-ever such regulations in South Africa and we are making the road by walking it. Only later in the lockdown process, after an extension, levels of lockdown were introduced.
It is this “making the path while walking” that Paulo Freire refers to. On this path, we have to learn to walk with others, walk on our own and be led in ways unknown to us. These are the days in which we have to not only learn but also relearn and unlearn our world and its challenges. Stellenbosch University must also walk this path along with its staff, students and the entire university community. Our bursary fund recipients for 2020 have to take up their bursary opportunities in much different circumstances than any of the others.
They have to learn in new and different ways, remotely and take much more responsibility for self-learning and discipline. In the spirit of Russel Botman, the bursary fund would like to encourage all interest groups to keep future generations in mind and continue to donate for the fund to continue developing the youth that needs to lead us into a new society and world.
Keep safe and healthy. Stay responsible and hopeful.
When Nadine Bowers du Toit from Stellenbosch University posts the Mail & Guardian article, Study unpacks the ‘hidden racism’ at Stellenbosch, I can almost hear the sigh in what’s on her mind: (more…)
Just last year Prof. Russel Botman spoke. His words were the Quote of the Day in Africa News on 23 July 2018: “Africa needs a new generation of responsible leaders who will be willing to place the public good before self-interest”, (more…)
Prof. Russel Botman established a bursary fund in his name with the hope of finding new ways towards a new society. He recognised that access to Stellenbosch University should be broadened beyond its apartheid,
Reflecting on the past
At the end of this month of June 2019, we commemorate Prof Russel Botman who passed away five years ago. (more…)
