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16 March 2022 | Story Nonsindiso Qwabe | Photo IAN VAN STRAATEN
Prof Francis Petersen (UFS), Alex Hickman (AMRF), Dr Ralph Clark (UFS), and Prof Shen Xiaomeng (UN Europe)
Prof Francis Petersen (UFS), Alex Hickman (AMRF), Dr Ralph Clark (UFS), and Prof Shen Xiaomeng (UN Europe)
Mountains matter; 60-80% of the earth’s fresh water comes from mountains, and 50% of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are in mountains. In addition, 50% of land across the world relies on mountain ecosystem services.

This is according to Prof Shen Xiaomeng, United Nations Vice-Rector for Europe, on the first day of the first-ever Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022). The conference, under the theme Southern African Mountains – their value and vulnerabilities, is taking place from 14 to 17 March 2022 in the majestic Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa and Lesotho. 

“We need to go beyond national and regional boundaries to have the collaboration. We have the opportunity to create a world worth living in for ourselves and our children. We can create and co-create together by transcending boundaries,” said Prof Xiaomeng.

The conference – a collective voice for the sustainable management of Southern African mountains – brings together a network of more than 200 delegates from across the globe to discuss a wide array of interventions to ensure the preservation of the ecosystem under global change.

Dr Ralph Clark, chairperson of the SAMC2022 local organising committee and Director of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) on the Qwaqwa Campus, said the conference – a first for the southern region – presents an opportunity for new collaborations in transdisciplinary research.

Bringing together people from various disciplines in one space for networking and information sharing, the conference seeks to create a space for robust regional and international collaboration and comparative mountain studies with an increase in research activities, student capacity, researcher capacity, and academic outputs that feed into policy and action. 

The conference was officially opened by the Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, Prof Francis Petersen, as well as Prof Xiaomeng.

Prof Petersen said the UFS firmly believes in getting involved with its surrounding communities and applying skills and knowledge towards making a real, practical, and positive impact in their lives. “Higher education institutions cannot afford to conduct research simply for its own sake. Our research efforts must address the needs of our surrounding communities and the wider world. Which is why, together with Teaching and Learning, and Research, the UFS – like many other South African universities – has a third core function, namely Engaged Scholarship, where we use our academic expertise with an intentional public-benefit purpose,” he said.

The programme has six parallel tracks – one of which is dedicated to postgraduate students – with about 200 papers delivered. In addition, there is a special Mountain Research Institute (MRI) session on long-term monitoring activities and associated data availability for climate change-related applications across Africa’s mountains, as well as a special UNESCO session on regional collaboration.

News Archive

UFS medical students reach out to the community
2011-04-16

 

The smiles on the children at Beyang Bana Pele Creche in Mangaung were blindingly bright, after their new classrooms and playground were unveiled on Friday 15 April. The creche was renovated by a group of third-year medical students from the UFS.
Photo: Earl Coetzee

A group of third-year medical students from the University of the Free State was responsible for many smiling little faces when they unveiled a entirely renovated crèche to its little students on Friday, 15 April.

Reinhardt Erasmus, Fathima Vawda, Veneshree Govender, Antoi Roets, Riaan Calitz, Motlalepula Mabizela, Tertius Potgieter and Chanel van der Westhuizen were the students responsible for the massive renovation work that went into the Beyang Bana Pele Creché in Mangaung.

The students tackled the project as part of a community service project and ensured that the 30 children who attend the crèche can look forward to coming to a safe healthy environment every day.

According to Riaan Calitz, they started the project at the beginning of the year by doing a needs analysis and talking to the children’s parents and teachers. They also involved the aid of an architect and quantity surveyor to calculate the needs of the crèche.

Next, they had to search for sponsors for their work, and struck it lucky when the Windmill Casino agreed to donate R100 000 to their project. They also managed to raise a further R5 000 as well as approximately R50 000 in goods and services donated by various other companies.

This money was enough to improve the safety at the crèche, install safe gas equipment in the kitchen, improve the insulation to ensure a warm winter, install new playground equipment and host several health and safety workshops.

“It took a lot of late nights and early mornings,” Calitz said. “Some of us also had to return from our holiday early, but it was worth it.”

He says the gratitude from the school’s children and teachers, as well as community members, who would stop and thank them for their help while they were busy working, makes it all worthwhile.

The students plan to stay involved with the crèche and say the renovation plan was drafted in such a way that when they move along, another group can simply pick up from their work with ease.

Mrs Sarah Mothoana, the crèche matron, thanked the students as well as everyone who assisted them in “creating a wonderful, safe and healthy environment for the children.”
 

 

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