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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

Staff attended Language Congress

2005-08-17

Ten staff members and students of the University of the Free State (UFS) recently attended the annual Language Congress of South Africa at the University of Pretoria (UP).

At the congress the prize for the best first paper delivered at a linguistics conference was awarded to Ms Susan Lombaard from the Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment (ULFE) at the UFS for her paper titled ”Translation from one medium to another: The translation of Biblical parts into South African Sign Language”.

This is the first time that a member of the UFS has been awarded this prize at a linguistics congress, and it is also the first time that the prize has been awarded for a paper dealing with Sign Language.

Some of the UFS staff members who attended the congress are standing from left Mr Philemon Akach, lecturer at the Department of Afro-asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language; Prof Theo du Plessis, Director: ULFE; Prof Jakkie Naudé, from the Department of Afro-asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language and Prof Alf Jenkinson, from the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French.

In the front from left are Ms Stephanie Cawood, from the Department of Afro-asiatic Studies and Language Practice and Sign Language; Dr Angelique van Niekerk, from the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French and Ms Susan Lombaard, from the ULFE.

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