WATCH | Wits med student Taz Emeran pays it forward with new foundation to help those in need
Image: Instagram/ @tazfitness_sa
After South Africans donated to help her settle her R471,000 student debt, Wits University medical student Mumtaaz "Taz" Emeran has announced she will use the R50,000 left over to start a foundation for those in need.
Emeran's story touched thousands last week after she asked for donations to help her pay for her studies or she could not graduate. She said failure to pay the fees also meant she could lose her internship, which is due to start in January.
In just 24 hours, her debt was settled by good Samaritans who forked out amounts from as little as R15. She said among her biggest donors was SA cricketer Lungi Ngidi.
Emeran will use the excess funds to pay it forward by building a foundation which she hopes will benefit generations.
“SA, we have an excess amount just north of R50,000. How crazy? My vision with that is to open a foundation that will help children around the nation who have stories similar to mine.
"How I plan to do that is through match funding and parenting with multiple social and financial institutions, to grow this fund into something all of us can look at and say 'we were part of that'," she said in an Instagram video on Monday.
Emeran said the foundation is in its planning stages and urged followers to volunteer and send in suggestions.
Last week Emeran shared that she had funded her studies in the first three years, but eventually found a sponsor who promised to cover her fees for the remaining years of study. However, this never materialised as the money was allegedly stolen from the foundation which sponsored her.
She told SowetanLIVE sister publication TimesLIVE in an interview that she is honoured to serve the nation which "birthed" her medical career.
“How glorious a story it is that through a pandemic, through so many lives having being taken by the pandemic, South Africans birthed a doctor,” she said.
“Working on the front lines in SA during a pandemic will be hectic, I know, but I will serve with gratitude and awe because I'll be thinking about what better country to serve - what better people to serve?”