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After South Africa’s battle with the record-breaking drought of 2015, Prof Andries Jordaan from our Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa(DiMTEC) saw room for improvement in dealing with this kind of disaster.
Drought impact
Commercial farmers who are usually net exporters of food crops and communal farmers who own the bulk of the country’s livestock, were all hit hard in 2015. Most of the latter had no resources to spare as the drought progressed. The concern about the drought’s impact on the country’s food production and availability resulted in a joint goal of preventing food scarcity during future droughts.
Prof Jordaan’s visit to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the US, several years ago prepared him to better equip communities in South Africa to deal with drought situations. “I recognised that in spite of the impact DiMTEC has been able to make on disaster preparedness, a gap remained in disaster response in South Africa.”
Sharing knowledge
In August this year Prof Jordaan again visited the NDMC. This time he requested a few key players in South Africa’s agriculture and disaster response communities to join him. With him were Janse Rabie, head of Natural Resources at AgriSA, a nonprofit organisation that functions as an interface between the government and about 28 000 South Africa farmers, and Moses Musiwale Khangale, director of Fire Services for the South African Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
The South African delegation met with and learnt from climatologists, geospatial technologists, and outreach and planning analysts.
Department Psychology of Education hosts an empowering workshop
2009-11-30
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The Department of Psychology of Education at the University of the Free State (UFS), in partnership with the department of Inclusive Education (Xhariep district), recently held a workshop on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein to empower students, educators, departmental officials and parents to address the needs of learners diagnosed with Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorders, as well as learners infected/affected by HIV/AIDS. Keynote speakers at this workshop included Dr Dawid Griessel (Paediatrics, UFS), Dr Annette Prins (Centre for Higher Education Studies and Development, UFS), Ms Santjie Vermaas (Occupational therapist, Motheo District Support Team) and Ms Jane Jarvis (Education Psychologist, specialising in ADHD).
The workshop, under the theme: “Empowering educators to cater for the diverse needs of learners in their classes”, was attended by more than 350. This first initiative has proved so successful that there have been countless requests for a follow-up workshop. At the workshop, from the left, front, were: Ms Santjie Vermaas (Occupational Therapist), Ms Sally York (Learning facilitator: Xhariep District) and Mr T.S. Tsipane (CES: Xhariep District). Back: Prof Johnnie Hay (Departmental Chairperson, Psychology of Education), Dr Dawid Griessel (Department of Paediatrics, UFS), Dr A. Prins (Centre for Higher Education Studies and Development ), Mr P.W. Terblanche (Chief Educational Specialist: Xhariep District), Dr Annalene van Staden (Department of Psychology of Education)
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe |