Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Four universities to walk 200 000 km in ten weeks

12 April 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Charl Devenish

“May the best team win the 2019 BestMed Pedometer Challenge!” said LJ van Zyl, Pedometer Challenge ambassador.

Participants in the 2019 BestMed Pedometer Challenge will start improving their health step by step after the University of the Free State (UFS) challenged the Stellenbosch University, Central University of Technology, and North-West University (NWU) to an eight-week walking competition.

South African 400-metre hurdles record-holder and the Pedometer Challenge ambassador, LJ van Zyl, embraced the initiative as an alternative method to achieve fitness. “I am so tired of running and this is great way to stay fit,” he said during the official launch on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on 5 April 2019.

Inter-institutional fight for fitness

Last year, the UFS Division for Organisational Development and Employment Wellness in the Department of Human Resources led a UFS-only challenge that saw 60 teams of staff members log a total of 54 606 km in eight weeks. The division then challenged the NWU.

Together, the NWU and UFS walked 132 000 km. This year, the UFS is taking it one step further by challenging two more institutions.

Leading the way

“We aim to get South Africa active – starting with the UFS – by embracing fitness and health ourselves,” said Arina Engelbrecht, UFS Employee Wellness Specialist.

Participants on all fitness and activity levels will gun for a 200 000 km target over 10 weeks.

The challenge kicked off on the Bloemfontein Campus with a 3-km walk at the launch, leaving 199 997 km between the four universities for the rest of the eight-week challenge.

News Archive

UFS receives a grant of R3 million from the Rockefeller Foundation, USA

2011-01-24

The University of the Free State (UFS) has recently been awarded a grant of R3 million from the Rockefeller Foundation in the USA to engage development evaluation leaders to provide practical assistance to the foundation to better articulate, monitor, evaluate and report on their results and strategies in order to achieve impact.

The grant was secured by the university's Research Development Directorate. It is the first time in 15 years that the Rockefeller Foundation makes a grant to the UFS.

The New York-based Rockefeller Foundation focuses on basic survival safeguards, transforming health systems, climate change and environment, urbanisation, and social and economic security in Africa and Asia.

Dr Zenda Ofir (Evalnet), an internationally renowned evaluation specialist and affiliated Senior Research Fellow at the UFS, is the project leader. Proffs Frans Swanepoel and Aldo Stroebel from the university will work closely with Dr Ofir and other Rockefeller initiative teams, key grantees and partners, mainly on issues of strengthening food security in Africa.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept