Grateful bursary recipient displays strong determination

Fee bearing image – Cape Town – 150624 – Marilee Van Der Merwe was granted a bursary to study at University of the Western Cape and lives with her sister, Chante Van Der Merwe and mother, Maria Van Der Merwe in a garage in Atlantis. Reporter: Francesca Villette. Photographer: Armand Hough

Fee bearing image – Cape Town – 150624 – Marilee Van Der Merwe was granted a bursary to study at University of the Western Cape and lives with her sister, Chante Van Der Merwe and mother, Maria Van Der Merwe in a garage in Atlantis. Reporter: Francesca Villette. Photographer: Armand Hough

Published Jun 25, 2015

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Francesca Villette and Jesse Booysen

AT 4.30am Marilee van der Merwe wakes up, collects water from an outside tap to bathe and puts on the kettle.

The walk in the dark from her home to the bus stop at 6am is cold, but thankfully short. She, her mother Maria and her sister live in a garage attached to a friend’s house.

Her mother skimped on grocery shopping this month, just like in many other months, to afford the R203-a-week to transport Van der Merwe from Atlantis to UWC.

“My circumstances drive me to want to not only make a better life for myself, but for many others in my community. I want to open my own business and teach my peers how to do the same. So many teenagers in this area do not know how to make something of themselves,” she said.

Van der Merwe is one of 35 students who received a bursary from the Imam Abdullah Haron Education Trust (Iahet) this year.

Haron, who was the imam of the Stegman Road Mosque in Claremont, was killed by the apartheid regime’s security police while in custody in 1969. The Iahet was established on September 28, 2005 in his memory.

Van der Merwe is a first-year student studying for a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Financial Management.

During her university holidays, she does filing work for an automative company in Atlantis, where her mother works as a cleaner.

“My mother is my everything. She has made tremendous sacrifices for me. I would never have found the strength to do any of this without her,” she explained, tearfully.

Iahet gave Van der Merwe R10 000 toward her studies. It pays for half her studies and she is extremely grateful.

Trust education committee convenor Junaid Daries said it received a R175 000 sponsorship from Old Mutual this year. They had more than 250 applications, from which they had to choose 35 candidates.

Yusra Khan, a 21-year-old studying medicine at the University of Stellenbosch, thanked Iahet for making her dream of studying medicine a reality. When she was in high school, Khan’s parents divorced. Since then, she has lived with her mother and two nieces, receiving no support from her father to further her studies.

“My motivation is seeing patients and knowing I can change (patients’) lives,” Khan said.

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