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31 August 2018 Photo Godfrey Ndoda
UFS Mobile Clinic - an exemplary framework of innovation
Free State Department of Health and the UFS Faculty of Health Sciencesentered into a partnership set to improve primary health care in the Free State society.
The Coordinator of Community Engagement and Rural Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr René Botha, described the unveiling and handing-over ceremony of the University of the Free State (UFS) Faculty of Health Sciences’ Mobile Clinic as “an auspicious and phenomenal occasion in the history of the faculty, and the institution as a whole”.

This mobile healthcare service will align itself with the current mobile service offered by the Free State Department of Health (FSDH) and will include an optometry service. This is the first service of its kind and aims to expose students and the broader community to mobile primary healthcare on rural platforms.

This collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences and the FSDH is believed to change and improve lives.   

“The purpose of the clinic is to enrich current primary healthcare measures that were implemented through valuable collaborations. This will result in the betterment of community members who have limited access to healthcare resources,” explained Dr Botha.

UFS medical students have been working on a continuous healthcare programme that started in 2016. The programme operates in areas in the southern Free State, where students engage with the community, schools, clinics, and are making home visits to residents in the area. The main purpose of the programme is to find solutions to key healthcare problems in the region. 

The MEC of Health, Montseng Tsiu, addressed the audience and explained, “implementing primary healthcare holistically through the mobile clinic, will benefit residents in rural areas who have a lack of facilities”. 

According to Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, the mobile clinic is an example of the innovation framework that cultivates the university’s mandate. The mandate stipulates the creation and maintenance of equitable partnerships with the province, the FSDH, the Department of Education, and many other crucial stakeholders that will ensure the imparting of knowledge, excellence, and quality in contributing to society.

News Archive

Valuable opportunity for future educators
2012-02-13

 
The UFS will award bursaries to about 670 students this year. These bursaries, to the value of over R42 million rand, will give these students the opportunity to follow their dream of becoming educators in South Africa. At the selection process were, from the left: Prof. Gawie du Toit, Programme Director: Initial Teacher Education at the UFS, Dr. Rantsie Kgothule, Teaching Practice Coordinator at the UFS Qwaqwa Campus; Ms Fiona Padayachee, Deputy Director: Recruitment and Selection in the Free State Department of Education; and Mr Kennedy Vilankulu, Information Manager at the Fundza Lushaka bursary scheme.

 

This year, 675 students from the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Faculty of Education will be awarded bursaries worth more than R42 million from the Fundza Lushaka bursary scheme.

The selection process for the recipients is already underway. Although each student’s academic performance plays a vital role in the selection process, beneficiaries are also selected based on performance in scarce subjects like mathematics, science and African languages.
 
 “We are trying to attract and train as many teachers as possible. Hoping they will honour their contract and teach in South Africa” said Mr Kennedy Vilankulu, Information Manager at the Fundza Lushaka Bursary Scheme.
 
Mr Vilankulu commended the faculty on its management of the bursary scheme. This is evident in the close liaison between the faculty, on both the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa campuses, and the Free State Department of Education. Just over 90% of the beneficiaries of the bursary scheme study at the UFS.
 
Prof. Gawie du Toit, Programme Director: Initial Teacher Education (ITE) says the quality of a school can never exceed the quality of its teachers. It is the faculty’s aim to educate caring, accountable and critically reflective education practitioners. These teachers must be able to act as agents of change in diverse educational contexts. Prof. Du Toit said it was a privilege to collaborate with both national and provincial Departments of Education in this venture.

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