Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS helps students with food parcels during lockdown

17 June 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Supplied

Between 40 and 50 students from the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein receive daily food parcels during the lockdown, thanks to the cooperation between the Food Environment Office at the UFS, Tiger Brands, and the Total Garage in Brandwag.

Annelize Visagie from the Division of Student Affairs (DSA), who is heading the Food Environment Office at the UFS, says just before the national lockdown started in March, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Tiger Brands to sponsor 500 food parcels to students who do not have bursaries. This is part of the UFS strategic goal of improving student success and wellbeing. UFS staff is working hard to implement initiatives and obtain sponsorships – such as this one with Tiger Brands – as well as food donations to ensure that students do not go hungry.

“Then the lockdown happened. However, the project continued, with Tiger Brands still sponsoring food parcels. Students email me and I respond to those emails. We are also looking at including students from the South Campus in the project.”

“I deliver the food parcels to the Total Garage across from the campus, where students collect it. We give between 40 and 50 parcels every day and have helped 650 students thus far. These parcels cost Tiger Brands R80 000 a month. We also provide students with vegetables from vegetable tunnels on campus,” says Visagie.

Visagie says the cooperation between the outside companies, the UFS, and even staff and students who volunteer, is heart-warming to see especially during this time of crisis. So is the gratitude from the students. They are also in discussions with the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers to provide 200 food parcels to needy students from next month.

“We have a supply chain going on in the storeroom at the Thakaneng Bridge. It is great to see how staff members and students jumped in to help us pack the parcels. We have permits and more students want to help, but they can’t get onto campus at this time. We would not be able to do this without the help of Tiger Brands and the Total Garage.”

The DSA Food Environment Office is also collaborating with senior management on the UFS Qwaqwa and South campuses to distribute food parcels on these two campuses.

News Archive

UCT scholar in Philosophical Psychology of Black Existence to join Judge Albie Sachs on stage

2015-03-23

Lecture by Judge Albie Sachs: ‘Sites of memory, sites of conscience’

Dr Buhle Zuma, listed as one of the 2011 Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans, is coming to the Bloemfontein Campus. He will share a stage with civil rights activist and former Constitutional Court, Judge Albie Sachs, on Thursday 26 March 2015 in the Albert Wessels Auditorium at 12:30.

Respondent to Judge Sachs

A former Mandela Rhodes scholar, and currently a young lecturer at the University of Cape Town's Psychology Department, Dr Zuma is particularly interested in issues at the heart of our rainbow nation . His research asks the question: What does it mean to be human for black people after centuries of dehumanisation? Dr Zuma also looks at the role of desire and fantasy in the political imagination of post-apartheid South Africa. He describes his developing thought and work as the Philosophical Psychology of Black Existence.

Dr Zuma will act as respondent to Judge Sachs’ public lecture, ‘Sites of memory, sites of conscience’ [Hannes, please link to the article on the main website]. This lecture will form part of a series that focuses on how the creative arts represent trauma and memory – and how these representations may ultimately pave the way to healing historical wounds.

Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Trauma, Memory, and Representations of the Past

This lecture will launch of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Trauma, Memory, and Representations of the Past. It forms part of a five-year research project led by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela [], funded by the Mellon Foundation []. The event is hosted by the UFS Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Studies [].

Dr Zuma lives by the belief that, if he imparts what he learns and knows lovingly and creatively, the world will be the better for it.

Details of the event:

Date: Thursday 26 March 2015
Time: 12:30
Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus
RSVP: Jo-Anne Naidoo at Naidooja@ufs.ac.za

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept