Beit Trust

Beit Trust is a non-profit organization established by the will of Alfred Beit in the year 1906. He was a philanthropist, financier, and director of the British South African company. He died at the age of 53. He left a valuable legacy to extensive coverage of charitable causes.

His will main goal was on Zambia and Zimbabwe. They were earlier called the Northern and Southern Rhodesia. It aims at the development of education, health-care, or another public charitable plan in the region. This structure the mandate for the present-day operations of the trust.

The Trustees converge every 6 months to agree and draft a broad strategy on investment, reservation, and risk management. Beit boards of Trustees have always shown a great desire for funding buildings and basic infrastructures. In the year 1954, they became an incorporated body. British Act of Parliament re-established the Trust. After which the country of Malawi earlier known as Nyasaland was also included as a beneficiary.

The Beit Trust has 3 major sections;

1. The Grants.
2. The Scholarship
3. The Bursaries.

We will discuss the full details of each section here.

Beit Trust Grants

Beit trust grants disburse the huge sum of funds for the support of education, welfare, health & public infrastructure of the beneficiary countries. The Grants are for big projects, such as hospitals and schools.

The grants are non-refundable which leads to the organization’s strict measure. To ensure that funds release are being used for its primary aim. Long-established grantees are mostly favored for it. As a result of their long-term sustainability and being able to use the fund for its purpose. The grants hardly exceed €50,000

Some of their Grantees and Area of support;

• IT School Africa (ITSA) is part of long-established Beit’s grantee. ITSA is a charity organization that supplies refurbished computers donated by UK companies to the beneficiary countries.
• Tropical Health and Education Trust facilitate activities in the health sector of the beneficiary countries. They help send doctors to the hospitals of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi.
• Beit Trust releases funds in support of wildlife and reservation in the environment. For example, they help conserve the black rhinos in the region from going into extinction. Two conservancies exist to control the activity in southern Zimbabwe.

Beit Trust Scholarships

Beit Trust provides scholarships to students through partnerships with some leading universities. There are six universities from the United Kingdom partnering with them. They are; Cambridge University, Oxford University, Leeds University, Edinburgh University, Strathclyde University (only for Engineering disciplines) and Glasgow University (Only for Bio-medical disciplines).

South African university partners are: University of Cape Town (UCT), Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University and University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). The universities in partnership with Beit only provide a year’s of Master’s study in the United Kingdom and 2 years of Master’s study in South Africa.

They do not award scholarships for undergraduate study but only for postgraduate study. The postgraduate scholarship aims for a Master’s Degree. They don’t give scholarships for Ph.D. research ab initio. But only on the exceptional condition for their scholars that finished with distinction.

Eligibility Criteria

• Beit trust scholarship is only for students who are citizens of beneficial countries. The students must live there too.
• To qualify for the scholarship, applicants must not be more than 30 years of age. Except for medical and veterinary doctors.
• For medical and veterinary doctors, they must not be more than 35 years of age in the application year.
• No scholarship award for students that have already started a course.
• The partner university must accept the applicant first. Before the student proceeds to apply for the scholarship. Thus, students are to send their application first to only partner universities for acceptance.

Beit Trust even encourages students to send their application to more than one Partner University. Once you’re accepted by the partner university, proceed and send your application.

The most qualified students selected after a series of interviews get the scholarship. The scholarship grant handles the student’s tuition fees, laptop, personal allowance, transportation, and more.

Beit Trust Bursaries

They award bursary annually to students mainly in the health sector to support their profession. And they oblige employed or undergo productive research in beneficial countries. The students will have to fill in an application form, giving relevant details needed, and provision of required documents.

Some of Beit trust bursaries are;

• Beit Bursaries for Junior Doctors (BBJD): They give grant awards to medical students who choose to engage in voluntary work in a beneficial country for at least six months. Bigger grants for volunteers in Zimbabwe.
• There is Beit COSECSA Surgical In-country scholarship.
• Beit Bursaries for Medical Elective (BBME)

Beit Trust Provides Grants, Scholarships, and Bursaries to support education, welfare, health & public infrastructure of the beneficiary countries. Start here to apply