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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

Groundbreaking research underway to improve health in the Free State
2009-04-06

 
Some of the researchers in the project, are from the left, back: Dr Sanet van Zyl, Dr Lynette van der Merwe (both of Basic Medical Sciences), Ms Michélle Pienaar (Ph.D. student Nutrition and Dietetics), Prof. Corinna Walsh (project leader, Nutrition and Dietetics) and Dr Dries Groenewald (Chemical Pathology); front: Mr Llewellyn Fourie (M.Sc. student, Nutrition and Dietetics) and Mrs Marleze van Rhyn (Van Rensburg Patoloë).
Photo: Supplied.
Groundbreaking research underway to improve health in the Free State

Ahead of World Health Day on Tuesday 7 April, researchers at the University of the Free State (UFS) have announced that they are involved in an extensive research project to determine how life in urban and rural areas influences the lifestyle of the communities and contributes to lifestyle illnesses such as obesity, diabetes and heart diseases, as well malnutrition.

According to the researchers of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the UFS, the study in various suburbs of Mangaung is a long-term project known as Assuring Health for All in the Free State (AHA-FS) and will monitor communities every three years for a period of twelve years.

Prof. Corinna Walsh of the Department Nutrition and Dietetics is the project leader and works closely with researchers in the departments of Basic Medical Sciences and Chemical Pathology of the School of Medicine in the faculty.

A total of 36 researchers and field workers are involved in the project and information on various nutrition and health aspects are gathered. Those include diet, physical activity, health, knowledge, practices and attitude towards nutrition.

Medical examinations, anthropometric measuring (of the human body) and various blood tests will be done in the study and extensive data on 1 200 people will be available in the end.

The data gathered will be used in intervention programmes planned to prevent and address health programme in these communities.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za  
06 April 2009

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