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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

Renowned Harvard scholar to speak on illness, care-giving and subjectivity
2013-01-28

 
Prof. Arthur Kleinman

 Prof. Arthur Kleinman, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Psychiatry at Harvard University, will visit the University of the Free State from 4 to 6 February 2013. Prof. Kleinman is a Rabb Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Harvard Asia Centre.

The highlight of his visit will be his participation in the one-day colloquium entitled “Constructions of Illness and Identity: Subjectivity and Chronic Illness in the South African Context” that will take place on 5 February 2013 in the Centenary Hall. He will be joined by a range of speakers from various international and national universities. During his visit, he will also deliver two other lectures.

On Monday, 4 February, he will give a lecture titled: “Against Cynicism: How the Humanities and the Cultivation of our moral selves sustain the Idealism of Students and Faculty”, and on Wednesday, 6 February 2013, he will speak on “Care giving: Revitalising its place in Medicine”. Professor Kleinman is the author of six books, co-author of two others, co-editor of nearly 30 volumes and eight special issues of journals, and author of over 300 articles, book chapters, reviews and introductions.  

For further enquiries, please contact Dr Katinka De Wet on 051 401 2918 or dewetk@ufs.ac.za.

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