BEFSA (Borien Educational Foundation for Southern Africa) is an educational charity trust, non-profit organisation (NPO) and public benefit organisation (PBO) working to reduce poverty in South Africa through a diverse set of interventions. The work started in 2004, with the specific aim of reducing poverty in South Africa. The beneficiaries of BEFSA’s work are the schools and communities located in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. This work has its roots in Oxfordshire County Council’s South Africa Working Group which began their work in 1995 following the democratic changes in the country in 1994. The activities that BEFSA runs in the rural areas of South Africa are advanced because of the acute disparities in income and wealth inherited from the apartheid era which are still painfully evident, and enormous differences still exist between schools in the rural and township areas compared to those in the former white areas. Poverty and hunger is widespread and HIV/AIDS and TB are continuing to extract a heavy social and economic toll.

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Their work includes the professional development of school principals and educators; the supply of teaching and learning resources (including large amounts of school furniture and equipment); providing improved teaching and learning environments and improved sanitation facilities for staff and children in schools in South Africa; a micro enterprise programme for women assisting them to start new businesses; running community feeding programmes with 4 feeding stations serving 2000 meals a week; and providing support for children with special educational needs and disabilities either in their local schools or in day care centres.