Does anyone know if or where I can get funding to do humanitarian work in South Africa?

Answer 1

Are you doing this on your own, without any attachment to a national charity organization? That might be difficult if you can't get the word out.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/YAOI-6Y23QL?OpenDocument&rc=1&emid=ACOS-635PKL
Try this article, it will give you some good information and some resources.
Also, have you tried contacting charities that already work in your area and attaching yourself to them?

Secondly, you can always do fund raising on your own. Here are some ideas to help get you started:
1. Do a search online for free fund raising ideas, there thousands of them, pick the ones you can do quickly. (see below)
2. Post a blog entry about it.
3. Join some community and fund raising forums and website and post your message there.
4. Email your friends with the information and ask them to forward the email to others.
5. Post flyers with the information on bulletin boards and other charity sites.
6. As for companies, it depends on the type of work you are doing. Go for the big ones first, like Nike, Coke, Pepsi, etc, send them letters and ask for sponsorship, sometimes these companies just send out checks to folks!
7. Then go to local companies, meet the owners face to face and explain your need and how it will benefit the local community.
Here are a few sites to get you in the mood for fund raising:
http://www.fundraising.com/
http://www.fundraising-ideas.org/
http://www.campusfundraiser.com/makemoney.asp?source=overture&OVRAW=fundraiser%20ideas&OVKEY=fund%20raiser%20idea&OVMTC=standard
http://www.chef-co.com/fundraiser-ideas.asp
http://www.abcfundraising.com/fundraising/fundraiser-ideas.htm