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13 September 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studios)
#UFSRun4MentalHealth
The #UFSRun4MentalHealth is an initiative to create awareness around mental health.
Bringing hope to the millions of South Africans suffering from mental illness, is the message the #UFSRun4MentalHealth team wants to resonate when they take on the 1 075 km distance between Bloemfontein and Stellenbosch.  

On Friday 20 September 2019, three teams of enthusiastic runners from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Organisational Development and Employee Wellness at the University of the Free State (UFS) will embark on the first UFS mental-health awareness run to Stellenbosch. Each runner will complete 9 km each day. “We will be passing on the baton of hope. There is hope, and no one is alone,” says Burneline Kaars, Head of Employee Wellness at the UFS. 

The #UFSRun4MentalHealth run will end on the campus of Stellenbosch University (SU) on 25 September 2019, with the symbolic handover of the baton of hope to a representative of the SU management. 

Team Blue

Team Blue. From the left: Jo-mari Horn, Patrick Kaars, Burneline Kaars, Riaan Bezuidenhout, George Dumisi, and Eugene Petrus.
(absent: Hendrik Blom)

#UFSRun4MentalHealth part of larger project

“This initiative is our effort to mitigate the impact of inactivity experienced by our students and staff on their productivity and mental health. The purpose is to raise awareness and motivate people to get active,” says Burneline. Through this effort, the UFS is demonstrating care for student and staff well-being. 

“Well-being is not only the responsibility of the organisation or university, but the responsibility of all of us,” says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor. “This initiative also demonstrates care – to look after one another, to take care of one another –from the organisation to our people, but also among ourselves.” 

Prof Petersen points out that the #UFSRun4MentalHealth forms part of a larger UFS project called ‘Project Caring’. He is also hopeful that the team’s effort to change the perception of mental health will encourage discussion and openness in the towns they will visit on their way to Stellenbosch.

Team Red. From the left: Arina Meyer, Nico Piedt, Brenda Coetzee, Justin Coetzee, Elna de Waal, De Wet Dimo, and Tertia de Bruin.

Team Red. From the left: Arina Meyer, Nico Piedt, Brenda Coetzee, Justin Coetzee, Elna de Waal, De Wet Dimo, and Tertia
de Bruin.

Putting care into action

“With this run to Stellenbosch, we are putting care into action,” says Susan van Jaarsveld, Senior Director, Human Resources. 
According to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, 16% or about 9 million of South Africa’s adult population suffer from a mental disorder. “With this increased awareness, we hope that people will share their mental-health diagnoses and that this campaign will help to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.”  

The #UFSRun4MentalHealth also links to the mission of the UFS Department of Human Resources to create an environment not only for high performance, but for optimal performance.

The sponsors of this initiative are BestMed, Standard Bank, Shell, Annique Health and Beauty, Xerox, Bidvest Car Rental, Media24, Kloppers, New Balance, Clover, Futurelife, Mylan, Pharma Dynamics, and the SA Society of Psychiatrists. 

Team White. From the left: Thys Pretorius, Lynette van der Merwe, Leon Engelbrecht, Arina Engelbrecht, Teboho Rampheteng, Belinda Putter, and Lucas Swart.

Team White. From the left: Thys Pretorius, Lynette van der Merwe, Leon Engelbrecht, Arina Engelbrecht, Teboho Rampheteng,
Belinda Putter, and Lucas Swart.

 


News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorates during its centenary week
2004-10-07

The University of the Free State (UFS) will award 12 honorary doctorates on Thursday 14 October 2004 to a diverse group of outstanding South Africans and international experts.

This will be the last in a group of 18 honorary doctorates that the UFS will be awarding in its centenary year.

The awards comprise of a number of well-known language experts and writers, experts in higher education, first-time awards in community service and development studies, as well as music.

“This reflects quality and also diversity, a spectrum of convictions as well as the recognition of persons who played a major role in changing society in the last couple of decades, “ says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

The awards can be grouped in the following categories:

Language and literature:

Mr Karel Schoeman (D Litt (hc)) – well-known Afrikaans author and former student of the UFS. Some of the awards he has received include the Hertzog prize for prose (1970, 1986 and 1995), the CNA prize (1972 and 1994), the Old Mutual prize (1985 and 1991), the SABC prize for best television drama in 1990, the M Net book prize in 1997 and the State President award (former President Nelson Mandela: Order for Excellent Service – silver) in 1999. It is an honor for the UFS to have this gifted and creative person among its former students. This conferment is a fitting recognition of his status as leading South African writer.

Ms Antjie Krog (D Litt (hc)) – well-known South African poet and former student of the UFS. Her popularity as poet is evident in her piercing honesty and unequalled power of expression. Some of the awards she has received include the Eugéne Marais prize in 1973, the Rapport prize in 1987, the Hertzog prize in 1990 and the RAU prize in 2000. Her writing has been translated into seven languages. She has also received numerous honors for her involvement in and journalistic documentation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) proceedings. It is therefore an exceptional privilege for her alma mater to honor her with an honorary doctorate.

Prof Jaap Steyn (D Litt (et phil) (hc)) – recently, Prof Steyn again distinguished himself as biographer whose thorough research is apparent in the published biographies of illustrious writers such as NP van Wyk Louw and MER. The numerous awards, among which the Stals prize from the South African Academy of Science and Art for the Van Wyk publication, are a matter of record. He conducted the research for this great prize-winning work as honorary professor at the UFS.

Prof Jakes Gerwel (D Phil (hc)) – Chancellor of the University of Rhodes and Director of Naspers, Old Mutual, Gold Fields and Brimstone. His doctoral thesis was published in The Netherlands under the title Literatuur en apartheid. Konsepsies van “gekleurdes” in die Afrikaanse roman tot 1948 (1983). He received an honorary doctorate from Clark College ( Atlanta), the City University of New York and Missouri in the USA, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Cape Town, the University of Natal, Rhodes University, the University of Stellenbosch and the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also outstanding professor in the Humanities at the University of the Western Cape, honorary professor in the Humanities at the University of Pretoria, and was the chairman of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

Development Studies:

Dr Frederick van Zyl Slabbert (D Phil (hc)) – for his academic achievements, his endeavors for bringing about a peaceful transition in South Africa and his demonstration of the social investment role of the corporate sector. Dr Van Zyl Slabbert has received honorary degrees from the University of Natal and the Simon Fraser University in Canada. He has published seven books and various academic articles.

Community Service:

Prof Robert G Bringle (D Phil (hc)) – from the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in the USA. He is currently Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and Philanthropic Studies at the IUPUI and also Director of the IUPUI’s Centre for Service Learning. He is honored for his exceptional contribution to several of the UFS’s community service projects as well as his role in the advancement of a multi- and inter-disciplinary approach to academic development and the integration of service learning within the faculties of the UFS. He has also made a valuable contribution to the conceptual framework of the UFS’s unique community service policy and more recently to the advancement of a research culture regarding community service.

Higher education:

Dr Khotso Mokhele (D Phil (hc)), President of the National Research Foundation (NRF) is honored for his contribution to the South African higher education sector. He has also made a substantial contribution to the development of the research capacity of universities and technikons in South Africa. Dr Mokhele was born in Bloemfontein and matriculated at the Moroka High School in Thaba Nchu.

Prof Saleem Badat (D Phil (hc)), the Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Prof Badat has devoted himself to transforming and building South African higher education, and has constantly challenged the higher education sector to retain the moral basis of higher education and tackle its challenges with intellectual honesty, ingenuity, creativity and courage. He is honored for his intellectual leadership in the development of a equitable, just and quality higher education system in South Africa.

Law:

Prof HA (Boelie) Wessels (D Legum (hc)) – for his contribution to the fields of Roman Law, Legal History at the UFS. He is currently a part-time lecturer at the UFS’s Faculty of Law.

Medicine:

Prof CJC Nel (D Phil (hc) Posthumous) – for the way in which he strived for the advancement of excellent medical education in the country. Prof Nel also did pioneering work in the field of transformation in higher education. Under his guidance the School of Medicine at the UFS became one of the first medical schools to adopt a parallel-medium system of instruction.

Music:

Prof Leo Quayle (D Mus (hc)) – for the significant contributions he has made to the development of music – not only in Bloemfontein, but also on national level and abroad. His initiative, enthusiasm and dedication contributed to the eventual founding of the Free State Musicon, as well as the first symphony orchestra and the first string quartet in Bloemfontein. Prof Quayle is a former head of the Department of Music at the UFS.

Prof Jack de Wet (D Mus (hc)) – well-known for his exceptional contribution to violin tuition in South Africa. As pedagogue of international stature, he still moulds violinists who compete at national and international level. At an advanced stage of his career, he still actively conveys his knowledge, experience and distinctive insight in his field of speciality to yet another new generation of young violin teachers. Today the symphony orchestras in Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth also stand on the foundations laid by him.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
7 October 2004

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