OUR GOAL

The Borien Educational Foundation for Southern Africa (BEFSA) is a charitable trust, non profit organisation (NPO) and Public Benefit Organisation (PBO). It was launched in 2004 to reduce poverty in Southern Africa.

To achieve the aim BEFSA runs a number of educational programmes and initiatives to enable young people to step out of poverty and into higher education or employment.
 
Since 2004 we have focused our resources on assisting the marginalised communities of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. 

THE CHALLENGE 

The reality confronting national and provincial governments in South Africa today is the sheer enormity of the challenges facing them to bring about major improvements in people’s lives. Equally, local communities have come to realise that there will not be an instant solution to the years of poverty, and to the decades of neglect and educational impoverishment associated with conflict and social injustice.

Families have watched as generations of children miss out on a basic education, either as a consequence of an unqualified teaching force or because of an absence of teaching and poor learning materials in schools or because of sub standard teaching and learning environments. In the rural areas of South Africa it tends to be a combination of all three.

In the midst of the poverty of the rural areas and the townships in which the majority of South African people live today, there is an urgent need to create and nurture centres of educational excellence to counter the perception and reality of two worlds and to provide opportunities for children to reach their true potential.

Search our site to learn more about how BEFSA is working with local communities to bring about change in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape, and see how you can get involved.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to:

  • Improve the quality of education for young people in schools in Southern Africa
  • Reduce poverty through educational and economic development
  • Enable rural and township schools to become agents for change

OUR WORK

We currently work across the Amathole West schools district of the Eastern Cape with schools and communities impoverished by years of neglect.

  • We run training programmes for teachers and school principals
  • We provide schools with furniture, equipment, and teaching and learning resources
  • We repair school buildings following natural and man-made disasters
  • We support women starting new micro businesses

You can learn about our programmes  and see how you can get involved.