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15 August 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Sonia Small
UFS debate
Join the UFS, University of Pretoria (UP) and the Motsepe Foundation in the upcoming Universities in Dialogue (UiD) conversation taking place on 20 August 2019.

Universities in Dialogue (UID) is an initiative driven by the Motsepe Foundation, which is aimed at promoting intergenerational, mixed-gender, and race conversations about socio-economic issues affecting South Africa. 

The purpose of the debate is to discuss alternative measures to advance gender equality and likeness across society, provide a platform for the youth to voice their concerns and deliberate in solution-driven conversation with renowned professors, and to create a space for students to collaborate among one another in order to solicit, drive, and fast-track transformation and nation-building in our country. 

According to research conducted by the Motsepe Foundation, the average age of the South African population is 26 years, which is why the initiative aims to generate debate among the youth on the most pressing concerns facing South Africa today. 

The foundation invited Kovsies to join the 2019 UiD dialogue, together with students and professors from the University of Pretoria (UP), the University of Cape Town (UCT), and Wits University. 

The dialogue/series is interlinked to the Motsepe Foundation Women’s Unit mandate, which aims to initiate interventions that will bring social, economic, and political empowerment to women and girls. The first debate, in partnership with the University of Pretoria, is scheduled for Women’s Month and will focus on the equal rights and participation of women.

The debate motion states: South Africa requires a feminist government to advance gender equity and equality across all sectors of society.

Event details are as follows:

Date: Tuesday, 20 August 2019
Time: 16:00–19:00

Venue: Access the dialogue live on 20 August 2019 here

For more information about the UiD, contact news@ufs.ac.za or call +27 51 401 9300 or +27 51 401 3735.





News Archive

Doctors make history with unique heart operation
2012-04-04

 

Cardiologists at the university delivered the first Melody pulmonary valve in Africa.
Photo: Evert Kleynhans
30 March 2012

Academics of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State made history in Africa once again this week with the implant of a special pulmonary heart valve.

“Today we are extremely proud Free State citizens,” Prof. Stephen Brown and Dr. Danie Buys from the UFS Department of Paediatrics and Child Health said after they placed the Medtronic Melody pulmonary valve in two young patients at the Universitas hospital in Bloemfontein.

This is the first time in Africa that the Melody valve is placed.

To date there are currently only 3 000 of these valves place in the world.

“It feels incredible to be part of a team of experts from the faculty.”

The Medtronic Melody valve is delivered percutaneously through a catheter from the groin. This operation is for children and young adults who are born with a malformation of their pulmonary valve.

These children often require open-heart surgery at a very young age and later require additional open-heart surgeries to restore blood flow between the heart and the lungs.

Prof. Brown said that of all congenital diseases, heart disease is most common. A lot of children born with heart disease are diagnosed very late and many die without ever receiving specialised care.

In 2011, Prof. Brown and two other cardiologists from the UFS, Prof. Hennie Theron en Dr JP Theron also reached a medical milestone when they were the first cardiologists in South Africa to do a second generation Medtronic CoreValve implant on an elderly patient.
 

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