The Council for the Built Environment in partnership with Feenix, a crowdfunding initiative that was birthed from the #Feesmustfall movement by its founding partner Standard Bank, is launching the ‘Build a Dream’ a crowdfunding initiative for Built Environment Students. This initiative seeks to assist indebted students pursuing built environment qualifications and those with previous debts to enable them to graduate and serves as a connection to the CBE skills pipeline – intermediate phase which aimed at addressing issues of unemployment of graduates and lack of training opportunities. The recent protests on fees have once again brought to the fore the need for the challenges faced by student in accessing funding opportunities at the higher education institution.

An integral part of this collaboration involves a combined effort to register previously disadvantaged students on the Feenix online platform where they will be profiled in terms of their funding requirement. Funders and donors may pledge an amount of their choice as a contribution towards the student studies and those who have completed but are unable to graduate due to debts.

“Like many professions in the country, the built environment sector is facing serious challenges such as the slow pace of transformation, ageing personnel, shortage of critical skills, funding gaps and high unemployment rates, especially amongst our youth. It is therefore important for the sector to take strides and develop strategies on how best to address crucial issues identified in the skills pipeline strategy for the built environment, especially gender representation, youth development, participation, and retention.” The “Build a Dream, campaign is one of the initiatives that CBE is driving towards transformation of the sector. We encourage youth to take advantage of this opportunity offered by CBE and Feenix. I challenge all stakeholders in the built environment and the country to join hands and support this campaign to make this vision a reality”, said Dr Myeza, CBE CEO.

“The Built Environment sector is, without doubt, critical to the future of our physical world. Feenix is proud to join the CBE in its mandate to work towards transformation through providing students with access to education. Too many students dropout, this is not only due to financial exclusion, but also due to challenges with mental health and not having access to all the resources they need to name a few. I encourage each one to join and invest in our future and make an impact by funding these students.”, Cara-Jean Petersen, Feenix CEO.

Let’s join hands by clicking here: Campaign | Feenix – Crowdfunding for Students to donate towards building a better tomorrow for the young people of this country.