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01 September 2020 | Story Andre Damons
Ntabiseng TEN Nursing winner
Nthabiseng Manele (23), a third-year student in the School of Nursing, is this year’s winner of the Exceptional Nurse Campaign Award.
A third-year Nursing student from the University of the Free State (UFS) became the first-ever student from the UFS to win the prestigious Exceptional Nurse Campaign Award.  

Nthabiseng Manele (23), who was born and raised in Bloemfontein, says she is honoured to receive this award as she didn’t think she would win. She even began to convince herself that she was not good enough and had already given up hope of winning this award.

An honour

“I honestly didn’t know how to feel. I must say, I was surprised at first and didn’t think I deserved this. After sharing the good news with family and close friends, it was made clear to me that I was working hard and that this was just me reaping the rewards.” 

“I feel honoured to represent the university and the Exceptional Nurse Campaign to inspire young people. I am extremely proud of all that I have achieved as a student nurse, and winning this award motivates me to want to do more as a registered nurse,” she says.

According to Nthabiseng, who always had the desire to work in a hospital and help people, her father had more faith in her. “My father always believed that I would come out victorious. I was completely surprised when I received the call, because I had already given up. It is incredible how God works; just when you think you’ve lost the battle, He shows up. This has encouraged me to believe more in myself than ever before.”

Making an impact 

Nthabiseng says she would like to make an impact in the nursing community. “Nurses all over the world are not given the credit they deserve, and I hope to one day follow in the footsteps of pioneers such as Florence Nightingale and Charlotte Searle and change the way the community view us. I believe that it is such an honour to work with other healthcare professionals to help people and save lives.”

Nthabiseng was nominated for the award by Dr Annali Fichardt, Director of the undergraduate programme, shortly after she and three other students returned from working as interns in the Jan Yperman Ziekenhuis Ieper Hospital in Belgium for a month.

She had to write a motivational letter stating why she has chosen nursing as a career, what she enjoys most about nursing, what she found challenging about nursing, and how she hoped to make a difference in the nursing community.

“At first, I was not sure what the award entailed, so my father and I made some phone calls to the campaign in order to learn more about the organisation. After actually seeing what this organisation stood for, which is to empower nurses from all walks of life, I knew that this was the best decision I could ever make in order to cement my place in the nursing community, to make a larger impact.”

Future plans

Nthabiseng is upfront about her future plans in nursing, saying she would like to become a lecturer and hopefully someday be the head of the School of Nursing. She feels this award will help to open doors to many learning opportunities in the nursing profession, equipping and preparing her for such a responsibility. 

“I also understand that this is a national award, which makes me an ambassador of the University of the Free State. I hope to continue excelling in my studies and clinical placements, and to learn as much as I can so that after graduation, I will reflect the level of excellence that the University of the Free State School of Nursing produces.”

  • The Exceptional Nurse Campaign (TEN Campaign) was established in 2005 by a group of nurses, businessmen and -women from various churches in Cape Town. Their mission was to create awareness of the nursing crisis in South Africa, to recruit exceptional young people for the nursing profession, and to mobilise exceptional nurses to the hospitals and clinics where help is needed most. They also encourage, motivate, appreciate, and honour all currently employed nursing staff, as well as raise the status of nurses in our nation.

    They also engage with people of influence to increase the annual health budget to meet critical needs and encourage church groups and communities to volunteer practical assistance at the public hospitals and clinics in the area.


News Archive

Historians must place African history on world stage – Dr Zeleza
2017-05-30

 Description: Historians must place African history on world stage Tags: Historians must place African history on world stage

From the left: Panellists Rev Henry Jackson,
Prof Irikidzayi Manase and Arno Van Niekerk at a book
launch and panel discussion on Africa Day hosted by the
UFS Sasol Library.
Photo: Mamosa Makaya

“African historians must take seriously the challenge of placing African history in world history, and in the history of our species, Homo sapiens.”

With these words, Dr Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Vice Chancellor of the United States International University-Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, stressed the continent’s challenge.

According to him the contest should continue to recover and reconstruct Africa’s long history. Liberating African knowledges can be done by: “Provincialising Europe that has monopolised universality, universalising Africa beyond its Eurocentric provincialisation, and engaging histories of other continents on their own terms.”

University celebrates Africa Month in various ways  
Dr Zeleza delivered the ninth Africa Day Memorial Lecture, titled The Decolonisation of African Knowledges, at the University of the Free State (UFS). The lecture, hosted by the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), took place on 24 May 2017 in the Equitas Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus and was one of the ways in which the UFS celebrated Africa Month.

Scholars should immerse themselves in these thoughts
Dr Zeleza focused on two issues, which he said were interconnected. They were the unfinished project of decolonising African knowledges and the continent's positioning in global knowledge production.

He said Africa’s scholars and students should “immerse themselves in the rich traditions of African social thought going back millennia”. According to him the continent’s research profile still remains weak in global terms.

“It is imperative that the various key stakeholders in African higher education from governments to the general public to parents, and to students, faculty, staff, and administrators in the academic institutions themselves, raise the value proposition of African higher education for 21st century African societies, economies, and polities.”

“Colonialism is associated with injustice
and inequality, but what happens when
our liberators become our oppressors?”

Library celebrates with panel discussion and book launch
The UFS Sasol Library celebrated Africa Day by presenting a book launch and panel discussion on 25 May 2017, on the pertinent and current political theme of land redistribution with a comparative basis of land invasions in Zimbabwe.

Prof Irikidzayi Manase discussed his book White Narratives: The Depiction of Post-2000 Land Invasions in Zimbabwe, accompanied by Rev Henry Jackson who wrote Another Farm in Africa. A perspective of the economic implications of land redistribution in South Africa was discussed by panellist Arno Van Niekerk: Senior Lecturer of Economics at the UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

Inequality still an African problem
The content of the books are a stark reminder of the burning issues of inequality and loss of identity of those who lost their farms in Zimbabwe, a collection of memoirs by white farmers and their families. Rev Jackson gave a religious perspective on reconciliation, forgiveness and the question of land ownership, saying that healing of injustice begins with forgiveness of past transgressions.

Van Niekerk highlighted that while land issues were important, “social cohesion is affected by the economic decisions that will be made”. In closing, Prof Manase called for serious consideration of what the future may hold. “Colonialism is associated with injustice and inequality, but what happens when our liberators become our oppressors?” 

The panel discussion was attended by staff and students of the university, and was lit up by robust discussions on possible historical and future solutions to the question of land, decolonisation and political power struggles in Southern Africa and lessons to be learned from Zimbabwe.

UFS celebrates Africa Month (24 May 2017)

 

 

 

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