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You too can get behind Ubuntu

22 September 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Anja Aucamp

Community enagement read more — Every year, several of our staff and students are involved in projects in our community to make a positive difference. One of the projects where we are making a difference is at Bloemshelter.

I am because you are. Ubuntu. What better month do we have to celebrate our Ubuntu, our South Africanness, than September – Heritage Month.

South Africans are known for their warm and generous spirit, their humanity. Closer to home, here at the University of the Free State, this is also a reality.

Bettering the lives of others

Numerous staff members and students engage in community projects and partnerships. “As a regionally engaged university, the UFS supports development and social justice through the practice of engaged scholarship,” says Karen Venter, Head of the Division: Service Learning within the Directorate of Community Engagement.

Engaged scholarship occurs at the heart of community-university partnerships in close and co-operative interaction with several organisations in broader society for the common public good.

A few of the flagship partnership projects that come to mind are Bloemshelter (caring for the homeless and developing as a social enterprise); Towers of Hope (caring for the vulnerable and transforming the city); and the Princess Gabo Foundation (in Thaba ‘Nchu, where they obtained a zero teenage pregnancy rate in school with a simulating doll-parenting programme to initiate responsible reproductive health education).

In Qwaqwa, Community Engagement partnerships involve the Itemoheleng Soy Project and the AGAPE Foundation for Community Development. Here, the development focuses on nutrition to boost people’s immune systems – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Moodi Matsoso from the Directorate: Community Engagement on our Qwaqwa Campus, the AGAPE Foundation is manufacturing rosehip juice, which helps with digestion and the healing of ulcers.

Bishop Billyboy Ramahlele, Director of Community Engagement, is also passionate about sharing knowledge and skills regarding enterprise development to others, supporting them to reach their full potential with the building of tiny houses.

According to him, an estimated 3 000 of our students are spending at least 127 000 hours per year engaging in the community through 73 academic service-learning modules, excluding the engagement of student organisations such as the Enactus UFS and co-curricular KOVSIE ACT (Active Civic Teaching) residential schools projects.

Vegetables for the food insecure

Another project that is making a difference not only in the lives of our students, but also for food-insecure families, is the UFS Community Garden Project.

Kovsie ACT, in collaboration with Student Affairs and the university’s Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Development and Extension (CENSARDE), is running a project where they provide fresh vegetables, including cabbage, carrots, beetroot, kale, and peas to food-insecure families.

Heritage Month is an ideal opportunity for everyone to show their Ubuntu spirit. Get involved and share some of your time, your talents, and your treasures to improve the lives of others. There are several causes in Bloemfontein and Phuthaditjhaba that need support (clothes, food, blankets, toys, funding).

You saw what some of our colleagues and students are doing. What are you doing to make a difference in communities?

- See Mandala Day poster for a complete list of the partnerships, programmes, and projects where our university’s Directorate of Community Engagement is making a difference.

News Archive

Official opening of Faculty of Health Sciences Rural Community Initiative

2017-01-01

Description: Karla Mostert Tags: Mail & Guardian, 200 Young South Africans, Candice Thikeson, Karla Mostert, Lerato Machetela, Mandela Rhodes Scholar, Thapelo Mokoatsi

Ribbon cutting, Prof van Zyl and Ms du Plessis
Venter (community member)

The Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of the Free State (UFS) has, as part of its commitment to student and community development, established a student residence in the town of Trompsburg in the Kopanong Local municipality, Xhariep District municipality in the Southern Free State. The Faculty officially opened the Faculty of Health Sciences Rural Community Initiative on 14 and 15 June 2017. The memorial plaque was unveiled by Prof Gert van Zyl (Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences) and Prof Francis Petersen (Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State)

The importance of the residence

The goal of the ‘Kopanang le fodise – Unite to heal’ programme is to develop a community-centered collaborative framework for sustainable, holistic healthcare and social development incorporated in the curricula of the Faculty.

Background of the project

During 2016 a total of 324 fourth-year students of the Faculty have each spend at least a week in interprofessional groups in primary healthcare facilities in the Kopanong municipality on a Community Based Education, Interprofessional Education (CBE-IPE) platform in Trompsburg and Springfontein.

To facilitate student rural placement the former Midway guesthouse currently includes seven (7) facilitator units with on suite bathrooms, two (2) fully equipped lecture facilities, a recreation room and a library with computers and internet access. The newly developed student residence has 10 apartments that can each accommodate six (6) individuals. A housemaster resides on the premises and acts as manager of the facility. All areas of the residence are Wifi covered and 24h security service is in place.

The ceremony was attend by the following partners

University of the Free State (UFS)

Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State, Prof Francis Petersen.
Members of the UFS council, Dr Vinger and Dr Swart
Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Prof van Zyl.
The Head of the School of Allied Health Professions, Dr van Vuuren.
The Head of the School of Medicine, Prof Kruger.
Faculty from the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Members from UFS institutional support department: ICT, Finance, Facilities management

Kopanong local municipality

Councilor Basholo, representing the Kopanong local municipality.
Kopanong local community members
Free State Department of Education (DoE)
Free State Department of Health (DoH)

Private sector partners

Mr Burgess, CEO of MDG Heath Solutions
The Mother And Child Academic Hospital (MACAH) represented by Prof Venter, head of department of Paediatrics, donated two (2) state of the art baby scales to the rural health programme.

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