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17 February 2021 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Pixabay
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

New Zealand High Commissioner visits the UFS
2009-11-06

The New Zealand High Commissioner to South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique, Mr. Geoff Randal, recently visited the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) and presented a seminar on “New Zealand and Africa: Asymmetry writ large”.

His talk considered relations between New Zealand and Africa, exploring what looks like a massive asymmetry. He concluded that difference wais normal and not in itself a barrier to effective collaboration. In his view, diplomacy is an important tool to obtain balance by continuous adjustment and through dialogue across perceived asymmetry. Through diplomacy as the connector, facilitator and coordinator, perceptions are shaped and can small states can make a stand against the powerful. Attending the seminar were, from the left: Mr. Arthur Johnson, Manager: International Partnerships and Liaison at the UFS); Prof. Heidi Hudson, Programme Director: CAS; Mr Geoff Randal, New Zealand High Commissioner to South Africa – speaker; Ms. Kamo Dipico, Administrative Officer: CAS; Ms Steffi Cawood, Lecturer: CAS, and Ms. Siti Dipico, Research Assistant: CAS.
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe

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