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10 December 2018 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied
UFS CMD team at the MACE Awards
The team from the UFS which attended the Mace Excellence Awards function in Cape Town this year, are from the left: Rulanzen Martin, Valentino Ndaba, Lacea Loader, Lelanie de Wet, Maria Venter; back: Zama Feni, Vivek Daya and Eugene Seegers.

The Department of Communication and Marketing won seven awards during the 2018 Excellence Awards presented by the National Association of Marketing, Advancement, and Communication in Education (MACE), which took place in Cape Town on 29 November 2018. It is the third consecutive year the department has brought home seven and more awards for its work in communication and marketing.

Lacea Loader, Director: Communication and Marketing at the University if the Free State (UFS) says: “Being recognised by our peers for quality and innovative work is most rewarding. This year, 172 entries were received from 12 institutions across the country. Although the competition was tough the UFS also received the Severus Cerff Award, one of three special awards. This award is made to the institution with the highest success ratio and for consistent excellence.” Loader serves on the MACE Board of Directors as Excellence Awards Coordinator.

Promoting best practices

MACE plays a vital role in adding value to practitioners in marketing, advancement and communication through high-quality development programmes, facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, as well as promoting best practices among these professions at member institutions.

The awards ceremony is part of the MACE Annual National Congress, which took place from 27-29 November 2018 at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town. The MACE Congress is a platform on which experts from the fields of marketing, advancement, and communication share experiences and best practices.

This year’s programme included speakers such Thabang Chiloane (executive head of Nedbank’s Group Public Affairs), Dr Marina Joubert (senior science communication researcher at CREST), Karyn Strybos (Marketing Manager at Everlytic), Bruce Dube (Managing Director of Nine80 Digital Media) and Brendan Cooper (head of New Media’s internal communications division).

Recognising hard work and innovation

Lelanie de Wet, Manager: Digital Communication received the Platinum award in the Division Campaigns with her entry for the Website Re-launch Awareness campaign. The Platinum award is bestowed on the best entry in a specific division.

The Digital Communication Unit in the Department of Communication and Marketing walked away with four more awards. De Wet also received a Gold award in the Design for Digital Media category for her work on the KovsieLife student web design.

Moeketsi Mogotsi received a Gold award in the category Design for Visual Media for his entry: UFS Women’s Month Billboard.

Barend Nagel, who joined the department this year, received a Gold Award for his photographs for the Africa Month Awareness campaign in the category Photography: Feature and Documentary. Nagel also received a Bronze award in the category Videography Skills, for his video entry: UFS Exam Hack.

In the Unit: Internal and Media Communication, Valentino Ndaba brought home a Bronze Medal for her entry of the BSafe Take Action campaign which was entered in the Issue Management Campaigns category.

IABC Gold Quill Merit Award

The Department of Communication and Marketing earlier this year also received an International Gold Quill Merit Award for the Website Re-launch Awareness campaign.

“The fact that we were also again acknowledged by the International Assocation for Business Communicators  is also commendable. "I am immensely proud of the national and international recognition my team received this year,” said Loader.

MACE Awards. Photo by Sonia Small
MACE Awards. Photo by Sonia Small
2018 Africa Month photographs
2018 Africa Month photographs
2018 Africa Month Photographs
2018 Africa Month Photographs
UFS Womens Month Billboard
UFS Womens Month Billboard
BSAFE Safety week day 2018 2
BSAFE Safety week day 2018 2
BSafe Safety week 2018
BSafe Safety week 2018

News Archive

Early nutrition impacts on burden of disease
2017-11-15


 Description: Corinna Walsh read more Tags: Corinna Walsh read more

Prof Corinna Walsh during her inaugural lecture on ‘Nutrition in Transition’.
Photo: Stephen Collett 

“The first 1 000 days, from conception to two years, is a critical time to ensure that the early environment is optimal to guarantee the best outcomes,” Prof Corinna Walsh, Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Free State (UFS), said. She delivered her inaugural lecture on Nutrition in Transition on 30 October 2017. 

During her lecture, Prof Walsh explained how an unfavourable early environment impacts on the health and well-being of both children and adults. She gave an overview of the prevalence of hunger and food insecurity in the Free State, and described the shift that has occurred from healthier traditional diets to more unhealthy Western diets accompanied by sedentary lifestyles. These patterns are closely linked to the triple burden of malnutrition, including undernutrition, micro-nutrient malnutrition, and obesity. Finally, Prof Walsh highlighted the double burden of disease, focusing on chronic lifestyle diseases on the one hand, and infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB on the other hand.

“Preparing for this lecture has given me the opportunity to reflect on the almost thirty years of my research journey, a process that I thoroughly enjoyed,” said Prof Walsh.

“It was a privilege to share the work of my research team with fellow colleagues as well as with family and friends,” she said. Prof Walsh is a National Research Foundation C-rated researcher and also served on the Board of the Medical Research Council from 2005 to 2010.

Foundations for health, growth established early
The first 1 000-day window focuses on the time between conception and the second birthday. “This is a critical period for growth and development,” Prof Walsh said. It is a unique period, as the foundations for health, growth, and neuro-development are established. It also focused on the implications of malnutrition, which is the biggest risk factor contributing to the global burden of disease.


Research identifies burden of disease
Her research has made a considerable contribution to identifying the burden of disease in the Free State. “It focuses on both malnutrition and infectious diseases such as HIV and TB on the one hand, and chronic lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension on the other,” she said. The research team have also implemented a number of interventions to address these challenges, including programmes that have assessed the impact of nutrition-education programmes, household food gardens, and nutrition supplementation.

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