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02 September 2019 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa
Precious  Lesupi
“Being a humanitarian cost you absolutely nothing.” – Precious Lesupi

University of the Free State (UFS) second-year BA Journalism student, Precious Lesupi from Kanana in the North-West, is a self-proclaimed ‘lover of people.’ She chose to spend her 21st birthday with disadvantaged children afflicted by life-threatening and life-limiting conditions at Bloemfontein’s Sunflower Children’s Hospice.  

Precious explains that her self-developed and coordinated charity and donation drive dubbed ‘Sunflower’s 21st’, was born in commemoration of her father who passed away after suffering from cancer. Her donation drive is aimed at catering for the medical needs of children battling chronic and terminal illnesses, such as cancer. The campaign will run until 2 November 2019, which marks this year's International Children's Day.

Her own personal experiences with genetic illnesses and diseases have been severely trying. But she believes her different life experiences and her family orientation have helped to shape her into being the vibrant, empathetic, philanthropic, and strong-willed young woman she is today.

Her goal is to continue initiating positive, life-enriching experiences for the less fortunate – especially children. 

Precious simultaneously drove another campaign alongside Sunflower’s 21st, called the Winter Jacket Challenge, which aimed to provide the homeless with jackets and warm clothing for winter. 

The embodiment of a clear benevolent spirit that burns to create positive memories and experiences for the less fortunate.

If you would like to contribute Precious’ initiative contact: 0815372500 

News Archive

DiMTEC and insurance industry join forces to address the vulnerability of communal and commercial farmers
2015-09-18

At the workshop on index-based insurance for the
agricultural sector were, from the left:
Dr Andries Jordaan, Johan van den Bergh,
Bertus Kruger and Henk Vermeulen.

The United Nations identified climate resilience as a major focus for future development to ensure a safer world for all. Tailor-made insurance and financial products ought to address the needs of the most vulnerable.

Recent research done by the Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC) at the University of the Free State on the vulnerability of communal and commercial farmers to external shocks highlighted the importance of insurance as an important disaster risk transfer tool. Insurance is generally unavailable to most vulnerable groups, such as communal farmers, small-holding farmers, and new commercial farmers.

For these reasons, DiMTEC invited the insurance industry and other experts to a workshop with the purpose of investigating the development of risk transfer products, especially for drought. They were the hosts of a workshop entitled “Global Resilience through Insurance and Index-Based Risk Transfer Products (IBRTP)”.

Bertus Kruger from Agriseker and Johan van der Berg from SANTAM, together with other experts, attended the workshop facilitated by Dr Andries Jordaan, Head of DiMTEC.

The group attending the workshop, agreed on the following:

- Establishing a UFS-DiMTEC-led research team to investigate the feasibility of index insurance products.
- Mobilising government support to develop risk transfer products for the most vulnerable.
- Initiating forum discussions on risk transfer products.
- Promoting collaboration between the private sector, government, and research institutions with the focus on resilience-building through financial and insurance products.

 

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