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11 April 2018 Photo Oteng Mpete
UFS medical students improve life for kids at Lethabo Daycare Centre
UFS medical students donate furniture for the Lethabo Daycare Centre at the UFS Bloemfontein Campus. From left front are: Anda Gxolo, Tshepo Ntoule, the daycare centre principal Selina Keta, Andrea Bailey and Yenziwe Mbambo. Back from left: Ilyas Moola Malibongwe Jiyane, and Yusuf Moola Umar Kajee
There is strong evidence to suggest that improving a caregiver’s knowledge has an impact on a child’s development. This is according to the Human Sciences Research Council. With this in mind, medical students from the University of the Free State (UFS) decided to work with a children’s daycare centre in order to improve the quality of care.

The students, from the School of Clinical Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences, were encouraged to assist NGOs in and around Bloemfontein, as part of their community service curriculum. They needed to look at hygiene, sanitation, cognitive development, physical development, vaccinations, prevention of diseases, nutritional status, socio-economic status, as well as the children’s environment. Moreover, they needed to highlight how a deficit from one factor could affect the other factors.
 
Through a meta-analysis study of 67 interventions regarding the above points, the students found most interventions to be generally effective in improving the children’s lives in one way or the other.
 
Selina Keta, the principal of Lethabo Daycare Centre in Mangaung, provided a list of problems she faced and ways in which the students could help to improve the conditions at the centre. She noted that the kitchen needed fixing because it did not meet the specifications required by the Department of Education for registration. The main issue was that the gas bottle for the stove was inside the kitchen and had to be moved out. The kitchen also needed steel counters, a sink, and running water. The students moved the gas bottle outside, and provided a fire extinguisher and first aid kit. They also provided a teacher at the centre with first-aid training from St John in Bloemfontein.

The students made sure there was running water and donated cupboards and microwaves to the centre. They also helped build two new classrooms, and there are plans for a third one to cater for different age groups.
As a final gift, the students painted the playground walls and arranged for the teachers to attend skills development workshops. They are also building a toy library for the centre.

News Archive

New security measures for Rag fundraising
2012-01-25

The University of the Free State will no longer allow first-year students to sell Ritsems or to shake their cans for change at traffic robots in Bloemfontein in an effort to raise funds for Rag Community Service.

This decision follows after an evaluation has been done in 2011 and 2012 concerning the safety risk for students during this type of sales at road crossings.
 
The new security measures have specifically been implemented for this type of sales since last year.
 
The measures included, among others, that students should be obliged to wear brightly coloured safety jackets during sales, continuous supervision of first-year students by senior students to ensure that students keep to the rules of the road, and limiting the sales hours at robots.
 
Through notices in the media, an appeal was made on motorists to keep a lookout for students raising money for Rag Community Service. The measures were implemented and the effects thereof for students’ safety during sales at robots monitored since last year. This follows after a student, Ms Hanje Pistorius, was hit by a reckless driver in 2010 and she subsequently lost her leg as a result of the accident. 
 
Although, from all appearances, the new measures are a positive contribution to protect students even more, the UFS decided to abolish the sales and fund-raising actions at traffic robots. As reckless drivers would not necessarily take notice of the extra measures, the risk to students at robots stay unchanged. 
 
"The UFS sets the safety of its students as first priority and considers it in the best interest of students to not expose first-years to the risk during our Rag programme,” says Mr Rudi Buys, Dean: Student Affairs at the UFS.
 
Night fund-raising and the selling of Ritsem in the city’s suburbs will, however, continue. 
 
Although the UFS do not expect the new measures to be detrimental to fund-raising efforts, Rag Community Service currently considers new supporting proposals for the raising of funds for community projects in order to address any possible reduction in funds. 
 
Mr Buys also has an agreement with Ms Pistorius to assist Rag Community Services in the planning of new projects.
 
The Night fund-raising in suburbs will take place on Tuesday 24 January and Thursday 26 January and the UFS calls on residents to assist students and help them in the important task at hand.
 
Three Rag processions will take place on Saturday 28 January 2012. At 10:00 two Rag procession will be leave for Heidedal and Mangaung, where the Kovsie Rag Community Service will hand out food parcels.
 
The main Rag Procession will leave the UFS at 18:00 and will move towards the Old Greys sports ground for the Rag concert with Die Heuwels Fantasties and DJ Black Coffee.

Media Release
25 January 2012
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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