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23 July 2018 Photo Johan Roux
Pilot exchange programme between UFS and University of Wisconsin
Dionne van Reenen, JC van der Merwe, and Prof John Grider from the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse.
The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS) partnered with the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in the United States of America (USA) to pilot the first Global Education student-staff exchange. 

The pilot project hosted seven students from the USA and five students from the UFS in a joint tour. The group delved into the political histories of South Africa, visiting among others Freedom Park, the Voortrekker Museum, the Apartheid Museum, and Mandela House during the first leg of the tour in Johannesburg. Before departing from Johannesburg, they had enriching, thought-provoking round-table sessions with Sello Hatang, Leon Wessels, and some of the staff from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

En route to Pilanesberg in North-West, the tour visited the Sterkfontein Caves and the Cradle of Humankind at Marupeng. Interactive days at the Mphebatho Cultural Museum and Pilanesberg National Park as well as an excursion to Korannaberg to view some San paintings, provided an opportunity to further survey the place of natural, environmental, and cultural heritage in a globalising, modern world.

JC van der Merwe and Dionne van Reenen were joined by Shirley du Plooy and Matau Setshase, together with La Crosse History Chair, Prof John Grider.

Insightful engagements on diverse issues
In Bloemfontein, the lecturing staff facilitated several full-day classes and dialogues at the UFS, after which students offered enlightening presentations on their insights, and showed some serious and deep engagement with legacies of segregation in many different contexts. 

During the closing evening’s discussions with Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, staff conveyed that, while they usually expect personally transformative moments during such engagements, there is always hope for real critical developments and deepened understandings of how we see and are seen – students on the tour exceeded this hope by seriously grappling with a large array of social and political challenges and initiating lively, inclusive discussions, debating in their own time and spaces.  
“Education, in all its facets, flourished beyond the classroom for staff, students, hosts, and visitors alike, and both institutions look forward to further collaborations in what promises to be a really productive model for international higher-education exchange programmes,” Van der Merwe said.

News Archive

Neonatal Care Unit receives donation to expand capacity
2015-10-28

  

With the best care and technology available,
the survival rate of premature
babies is about 85%. The neonatal intensive
care unit at the Universitas hospital can now
expand its capacity thanks to a donation of
R1 million by the Discovery fund.
From the left is Prof André Venter.
Head: Department of Paediatrics and
Child Health at the UFS, and mrs Ruth Lewin,
Head: Corporate Sustainability at Discovery. 

The smallest people need the greatest care. This care is being provided by the neonatal unit in the Children’s Wing of the Universitas Hospital. This project of the University of the Free State (UFS), under the leadership of Prof Andre Venter, has led to several miracles regarding child health since its inception.

Now, thanks to a donation of R1 million rand from the Discovery fund, this unit can expand its capacity and treat more premature babies.

About 14% of babies in South Africa are born before the 37th week of pregnancy. These babies are born with a very low birth weight, and are in need of critical care. The neonatal intensive-care unit at Universitas Hospital is currently equipped to take care of about 14 premature babies at a time, from birth to discharge. However, because of the high incidence of premature births in the hospital’s service area, the unit needs about 45 beds.

The aim of the Children’s Wing Project is to expand the neonatal intensive-care unit in order to meet the demands of the hospital’s service area, which reaches as far as the Southern Cape. The Discovery Fund recently donated R1 million to the project, which will be used to expand the capacity of the neonatal intensive-care unit.

“With the best care and technology available, the survival rate of premature babies is about 85%. Without this, half of all premature babies would die,” says Prof Venter, Head: Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the UFS.

“This is the reason why private and public partnerships, such as the one with Discovery, are essential to make specialised services available to the most vulnerable people. Discovery has made a significant contribution to the project without which we would not have been able to expand the capacity of the unit



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