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Students play leading role to ensure food security

17 June 2020 | Story Dr WP Wahl

The Division of Student Affairs (DSA) prioritises innovation to meet the challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition among students. To this end, several student volunteers and student governance structures are collaborating with the DSA on various initiatives.

During 2019, various conversations were held about the possibility of creating a health-promoting food environment at the UFS where students and staff are well informed and empowered to take appropriate action regarding their food and nutritional needs. These conversations resulted in an institutional strategy to address the food environment at the UFS. Student representatives serve on a technical committee that directs the implementation of this strategy. In this regard, several initiatives have already been launched.

Students from residences and other student communities have planted vegetable gardens on the Bloemfontein Campus with the assistance of KovsieACT and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. Students and staff are already harvesting and distributing vegetables to needy students every week. Measurements were put in place to continue this during the COVID-19 period. The following vegetables were planted: spinach, cabbage, beetroot, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.

Food parcels, donated by Tiger Brands and Gift of the Givers, are continuously handed out by DSA staff and student volunteers. In this regard, 540 food parcels have already been handed out on the Bloemfontein Campus during the COVID-19 period alone. During the same time, 117 students received food parcels on the Qwaqwa Campus. The innovation of this food parcel project rests on the fact that business, NPOs, UFS students, and DSA staff are collaborating to address food insecurity and malnutrition.

More collaborative initiatives will be implemented over the next 12 months. The DSA staff and students are already working with the Department of Dietetics and Consumer Sciences to create information packages about the preparation of low-budget nutritious meals.

News Archive

Complicity, tragedy and shameful prejudice displayed in exhibition

2013-06-06

The history of the persecution of homosexuals during the Nazi era on display.
Photo: Johan Roux
06 June 2013

The exhibition In Whom Can I Still Trust? portrays the history of the persecution of homosexuals during the Nazi era. It cuts even closer to home, as it also explores the protection of sexual minorities in South Africa as well.

Richard Freedman, Director of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation, was the guest speaker during the opening.

The exhibition is brought to South Africa thanks to the efforts of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation. The foundation redesigned and developed the exhibition specifically for South Africa. Originally under the curatorship of Dr Klaus Mueller from Berlin, on behalf of IHLIA (Homosexual and Lesbian Archive, Amsterdam), the exhibition highlights the largely-untold history of the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany. Archive photographs, personal testimonies and video clips relate the historical narrative to the prejudices still facing homosexuals today.

Through additional panels, the exhibition aims to focus attention on the protection of sexual minorities in South Africa. The It Gets Better South Africa Project – a collection of videos that discourages homophobic bullying – forms an important part of the exhibition. The interviewees range from struggle hero Ahmed Kathrada and Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to TV personality Joanne Strauss.

In Whom Can I Still Trust? is hosted by the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the UFS in partnership with the South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation, the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery and Student Affairs.

Exhibition runs: 6 –14 June 2013
Place: Thakaneng Bridge

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