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30 August 2018 Photo Xolisa Mnukwa
Haemophilia workshop the first of its kind at UFS
The UFS Department of Haematology and Cell Biology is producing quality medical graduates, addressing the high demand for trained graduates. Dr Anneke van Marle, Haematologist in the department, presented a lecture to final-year medical students on muscle and soft-tissue bleeding in haemophilia.

The Medical and Scientific Advisory Council (MASAC) of the South African Haemophilia Foundation (SAHF) has identified a need for more in-depth training of junior doctors on the basic aspects of the bleeding disorder haemophilia. 

Addressing this need in the sector, the Department of Haematology and Cell Biology at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently hosted a training workshop specifically targeting final-year medical students before they enter practice.

The Novo Nordisk Haemophilia Foundation is sponsoring this countrywide haemophilia training.

According to Jaco Joubert, Senior Lecturer and Pathologist in the Department of Haematology and Cell Biology, the department is very active in the field of haemophilia treatment, research and training, with representation on the Executive Committee of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the South African Haemophilia Foundation.

Function with confidence

“The UFS Department of Haematology and Cell Biology has taken a proactive approach, by being the first department in South Africa to offer this training course to final-year medical students at the UFS; an investment in the future. The department runs the Bloemfontein Haemophilia Treatment Centre – which is the main haemophilia treatment and referral centre for patients from the Free State and Northern Cape. It is therefore ideally positioned to offer such training to students,” said Joubert.

Proactive role

The training workshop empowered and equipped students with more extensive knowledge on the practical aspects of managing patients with haemophilia; the various treatment products currently available in South Africa and laboratory diagnostic approaches in complicated cases. “This will enable students to function with more confidence during their internship and community service years,” said Joubert. 

He believes a training workshop of this calibre showcases the proactive role the department and the university is taking in the advancement of haemophilia training in South Africa.

News Archive

First UFS/AS Young African Scholar Award winner announced
2016-03-10

Description: Fana Gebresenbet Erda Tags: Fana Gebresenbet Erda

Fana Gebresenbet Erda, winner of the first University of the Free State /Africa Spectrum Young African Scholar Award, for his research on political economy.
Photo: Supplied

Scholarship in African Studies still faces the challenge of capacity-building to increase ownership by authors and institutions from and on the African continent. It also requires more coordinated efforts to provide the space deserved by African authors in the international domain. In 2015, the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Africa Studies joined forces with Africa Spectrum (AS) in a bid to address this issue by establishing the UFS/AS Young African Scholar Award.

This award seeks to strengthen efforts to promote internationally recognised African scholarship in African Studies. One way to achieve this objective is through publishing articles by researchers based in Africa and in the diaspora in Africa Spectrum, an accredited journal compiled by the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg.

The inaugural award winner

Fana Gebresenbet Erda, a PhD candidate in a Global and European Studies programme jointly offered by the University of Leipzig (Germany) and Addis Ababa University, wrote the winning article for 2015. He will receive a three-year affiliation to the UFS Centre for Africa Studies as a Research Fellow, along with prize money of R5 000, sponsored by the UFS.

His article, The Ethiopian Developmental State in Its Peripheral Lowlands: Large-Scale Land Acquisitions, the Politics of Dispossession and State Remaking in Gambella, Western Ethiopia, argues that development through large-scale land acquisitions in Gambella, Western Ethiopia, belies a state-remaking project under a dispossessive political economy.

Submission now open
Africa Spectrum invites scholars to submit research articles in the context of the award. In October of each year a review committee selects submissions for review. Those eligible to submit are postgraduate students nearing completion of their PhD theses and postdoctoral scholars who were awarded their PhDs no more than five years earlier at the time of the submission deadline. Those submitting should be from Africa or should be affiliated to African institutions.

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