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#Challenge: Have a Heart and donate blood

17 February 2021 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Pixabay

blood donation_web read more — Two final-year MBChB students show how it is done when they donated blood earlier this year.

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) staff and students in the Faculty of Health Sciences have challenged other departments in the faculty as well as other faculties and departments at the University of the Free State (UFS) to see whose staff and students will donate the most blood!

Mrs Angela Vorster, UFS Clinical Psychologist, says the South African National Blood Services (SANBS) has been appealing for increased blood donations since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. In order to provide support, the School of Clinical Medicine at the UFS held a virtual blood donation challenge in 2020, to encourage students to participate in altruistic behaviour and to enable the pre-clinical platform year groups to also feel like they are providing essential medical assistance.

“This was hugely successful and consequently we decided to include a blood donation challenge in our annual Mental Health Awareness programme. The benefits of donating blood are not only of a physiological nature (e.g. it assists in reducing iron levels and helps to control high blood pressure etc.) but means you are giving something of yourself. It will definitely save at least one life, perhaps more, and is incredibly beneficial in enhancing feelings of self-worth and personal meaning,” says Vorster.

The Faculty of Health Sciences invited the SANBS to UFS this week to provide all students and staff with the opportunity to donate blood at their place of work and study. So Have a Heart and take a few minutes to relax with a cookie and cool drink while your heart does the work of blood donation for you.

Details are as follows:

When: 18 and 19 February

Where: Francois Retief Foyer UFS

Time: 07:00-14:30

News Archive

UFS student wins National SAICA Competition

2009-08-03

Photo: Lacea Loader

“Rapid urbanisation, HIV/Aids, climate change risks, and a lack of environmental awareness; are we anywhere near a sustainable development? The answer is no, but this doesn’t mean that we are far from it. All that it will take to get us on the right track is individuals and organisations asking themselves, ‘What am I responsible for?’ and taking the appropriate action, or else we won’t be able to answer to our children and their children.”

This is an excerpt from an essay written by Likeleli Mphutlane, a third-year student in B. Accounting at the University of the Free State (UFS). The essay won her the first place in an essay competition on sustainability. She was one of 137 students across the country that submitted an essay as part of the South African Institute of Chartered Accounting’s (SAICA) National Student Leadership Summit. The essay secured her a place as one of 24 students to attend the summit in Johannesburg on 25 July 2009 where she was named the winner of the competition.

The prize was a brand-new Dell laptop, which will assist her with her studies. The 20-year-old Likeleli, a student from Welwitchia Residence, who was also amongst the top 14 students in the university’s Matriculant of the Year Competition in 2006, lives in Lesotho.

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