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02 September 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Charl Devenish
Faculty of Health Sciences donation of PPEs
A group of medical students pose with their new masks, a donation by an alumnus of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) welcomed the generous donation of 1 000 surgical masks by one of its alumni to aid medical students in this faculty with their clinical training. 

The Professional Provident Society (PPS), a financial services company focused solely on providing intelligent financial solutions for graduate professionals, also donated personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Faculty of Health Sciences.
The first donation was made by Dr Riaan Flooks, a Specialist Physician at Mediclinic Bloemfontein. Dr Flooks received the masks from a friend and decided to donate some of the masks to the UFS. 

Thankful for donations 

Prof Gert van Zyl, Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences, says they are thankful for the donations. 
“All donations help, big or small, and it will help our students to do their tasks and to help where necessary,” Prof Van Zyl said about the second donation by PPS. 
Prof Nathaniel Mofolo, Head: School of Clinical Medicine, expressed his gratitude to Dr Flooks and called him a patron of the university and the faculty.
“On behalf of the School of Clinical Medicine, I hereby wish to express our heartfelt gratitude for your generous contribution and support. This comes at the most needed time and will go a long way in assisting us,” said Prof Mofolo.  
Dr Lynette van der Merwe, undergraduate medical programme director in the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of the Free State (UFS), added that the donation of essential PPE to students for use during training in the clinical areas was much appreciated.  
“The support for the academic programme in a practical, tangible way is highly valuable, as it will assist in protecting students while they are in clinical training.”

Doing their bit

According to PPS, one of the positives of the COVID-19 pandemic is the contributions of so many to deal with the crisis – from individuals to big corporates – who want little or nothing in return.  
“We all need to do our bit, and the PPS board has recently decided to contribute R25 million to fight the pandemic in South Africa. In deciding where this would make the biggest impact, our unique positioning among professionals and our relationship with professional associations were considered.”  
“We are also very conscious that health professionals, in particular, are the front-line soldiers in this war, and need to be protected.  It was therefore decided that a major portion of the money will be used to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) for the safety of medical professionals in both the public and private sectors,” according to PPS.

News Archive

Dr Henry Jordaan’s research to establish benchmarks for sustainable freshwater use in agri-food industries
2014-08-22

 

 Photo: en.wikipedia.org

Dr Henry Jordaan, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics, is working on a multi-disciplinary research project for the Water Research Commission. The project assesses the water footprints of selected agri-food products that are derived from field and forage crops produced under irrigation in South Africa. These foods include animal products, such as meat and dairy, and crop products such as bread and maize meal.

“The water footprint of a food product is the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the product, measured from the farm to the actual consumption of the food product. Thus, the water footprint is a good indicator of the impact that the consumption of a product has on our scarce freshwater resource. The agri-food sector is a major user of freshwater in South Africa with a relatively large water footprint,” says Dr Jordaan.

However, the agri-food sector also has an important role in economic development in South Africa. It generates income and employment opportunities along the value chains of the food products.

The challenge is to maximise the economic and social benefits from using freshwater in an environment where freshwater gets increasingly scarce.

Through his research, Dr Jordaan aims to establish benchmarks for sustainable freshwater use in selected agri-food industries – from an environmental, economic and social perspective. These benchmarks will inform water users on the acceptable volumes of freshwater to use to produce food products. It will also inform users of the economic and social benefits that they are being expected to generate through their actions so that their water use behaviour could be considered sustainable.


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