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                            06 August 2021  
                        
                    
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                            Story Nonsindiso Qwabe
                        
                    
                        
                    
                        
                
            
         
        
            
            
            
        
        
          
 
Every year, the Active Civic Teaching Office (ACT) at the University of the Free State runs the Big Give campaign to raise food, money to buy food, and other forms of assistance for needy students. This year is no different. ACT’s big project is raising money for sanitary pads for students on all three campuses. The project will run throughout Women’s Month, August 2021. Providing menstrual hygiene products to female students empower them to continue their studies in comfort.
 
Karen Scheepers, Assistant Director: Kovsie Support Services, said: “This year, one of the challenges that have been highlighted is the lack of sanitary wear for students. Therefore, we focus our Big Give campaign this year on addressing this challenge that students are experiencing.”
 
Be part of the Big Give campaign by donating sanitary pads or money towards this initiative. Donation boxes are ready for donations at all the entrance gates of all three campuses. Your donation will go a long way in helping a deserving student.
         	
       
		
			
			    
		
		
		
		
		 
        
    
	 
 
                
Eco-building workshop and rehabilitation through collaboration 
2017-03-17
  A demonstration of eco-building at Lebone Village 
recreation centre
Photo: Supplied
 
An intimate learning platform was created when Velile Phantsi and Mokoena Maphalane, two community members who had received training in eco-building from the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Development Support (CDS) under the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, presented a workshop for 10 Free State psychiatric patients in Bloemfontein on 23 February 2017. 
Building self-sustaining communities
The training programme took place at Lebone Village recreation centre, at a structure that was built through the eco-building initiative, Qala Phelang Tala (Start Living Green). The collaboration between the Department of Occupational Therapy at the Faculty of Health Sciences and CDS has the potential to address unemployment and housing backlogs and forms a significant part of the rehabilitation of vulnerable people. It has also created prospects for community-based research.
Training and support to rehabilitate vulnerable people
Following the sharing of skills, the Department of Occupational Therapy will continue to work with patients through this community engagement project. Trainees will receive support in building a recreation centre structure at their own complex. During the presentation Mokoena Maphalane shared his personal experience of how physical activity such as eco-building helped him recover from the debilitating effects of a stroke. It is something he hopes will assist other patients in the future.  
More information on eco-building.