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22 September 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Anja Aucamp
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

UFS hosts Nobel Laureate
2010-01-15

The University of the Free State (UFS) will host the 1991 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Prof. Richard Ernst from Switzerland, on its Main Campus in Bloemfontein from 22-26 January 2010.

Prof. Ernst’s visit to the UFS is part of an extended tour of South African higher education institutions and the National Research Foundation. His visit will coincide with the fourth presentation of the Cheese fondue that had previously been presented with great success in Europe.

The Cheese fondue concept is the brainchild of Prof. Hartmut Frank of the University of Bayreuth in Germany, who is currently a visiting fellow at the UFS Department of Chemistry.

This concept posits that technical advances alone are insufficient for an agreement to be reached on the minimum respect between the various groups and individuals within a society. It proposes that for this to be achieved there has to be a concurrent development of empathy and emotional synergy. In other words, there has to be spiritual acceptance and tolerance of the different cultural or religious ways of coming to terms with the deep-seated need for a spiritual home.

To this effect the UFS will host a Braai Workshop on Saturday, 23 January 2010 to promote this understanding, hence this year’s theme Justice, a matter of respect, ethics and empathy. The invitation to the workshop is open to the public and those who are interested should confirm their attendance with Ms Stefanie Naborn on 051 401 2531 before Monday, 18 January.

Prof. Ernst will present a paper on Justice – the Culture of Responsibility;  Prof. Patrizio Bianchi, the Rector of the University of Ferrara in Italy, will focus on the topic After the Global Crisis: Justice and Wellbeing – the Goals of Economy; while Judge of Appeal, Fritz Brand will talk about Justice – the South African reality.

Prof. Ernst, Prof. Bianchi and Judge Brand will also take part in a panel discussion, together with the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS Prof. Jonathan Jansen and Prof. Johan Henning, Dean of the UFS Faculty of Law.

Subsequent to that, Prof. Bianchi will present a lecture on the topic Globalisation, Agriculture and Industrial Development in the CR Swart Auditorium on the Main Campus on Monday, 25 January 2010 from 10h00 - 12h00. Prof. Ernst's lecture is from 12h30 - 14h30.

For more information, contact Ms Stefanie Naborn on 051 401 2531 or at nabornsa@ufs.ac.za  or Prof. Aldo Stroebel on 051 401 3506/3403 or at stroebea@ufs.ac.za .

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za  
15 January 2010
 

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