Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
31 May 2022 | Story Lunga Luthuli | Photo Supplied
Melissa De Aveiro

Singer, writer, and motivational speaker, Melissa de Aveiro, says: “One can only rise from the ashes when the fire starts again, and the beauty of it all is that the ashes is stuck to your clothes. As you move on, you build off it as it falls from your clothes.”

She said: “When the fire starts in you, nothing is going to stop it.”

This she said at the Division of Organisational Development and Employee Well-being’s Rising from the Ashes event held at the Centenary Complex on the Bloemfontein Campus. Melissa’s story is about never giving up and “never backing down – even when people throw you with rocks, use the rocks to build a new road”.

Melissa said: “Many people unfortunately do not rise from the ashes because there is no support from friends, people. You can never do it alone as the journey through the ashes is lonely.”

Melissa believes to get through the ashes, one has to go back and “remind yourself of when it was good in your life, remind yourself about the positive things – even though things might not be great now”.

Known as the 'Weskus Dutchess', and growing up in Vredendal, Western Cape, Melissa’s tough life, sexual abuse, drug abuse, homelessness, and the death of her son never stopped her from dreaming. All the setbacks planted in her a “passion for a guitar and people, a birth of a new season, a desire to change the world”.

To rise from the ashes, Melissa said, “You need to go back to the place where you were hurting, confront the demons, the people that abused you, maybe forgive them and remove the chains you are tied with.”

Susan van Jaarsveld, Senior Director: Human Resources at the University of the Free State, believes that hosting wellness events is a way for the UFS to show that “employees are the most valuable asset of the university and need to be looked after”.

Susan said: “Staff need to know that it is okay not to be okay. However, the UFS has systems to look after your well-being. People need to know that they are not alone, they can make use of the Department of Human Resources’ Careways Employee Wellness Programme.”

Susan believes it was important to host the event, as “staff need face-to-face interaction for their well-being, it helps people to know they are not alone”.

Melissa, the author of the book Weskus Wonderwerk, believes in being unstoppable. She said: “To rise from the trenches, always think positive about yourself, you must exist. You cannot give up; your worth cannot be determined by an individual.” 

News Archive

UFS awards honorary degree to Justice Richard Goldstone
2012-01-26

 
Justice Richard Goldstone

A huge honour will be bestowed upon the University of the Free State (UFS) when the world renowned Justice Richard Goldstone will be receiving an honorary degree at the official opening of our university.

The Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) degree will be conferred on Justice Goldstone on Friday 3 February 2012 at 10:00 on our Bloemfontein Campus.

Mr Richard Freedman, Director of the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation, and Judge Mahube Molemela, Justice of the Free State High Court, are amongst the prominent figures expected to attend this event.

Justice Goldstone served in the Constitutional Court from 1995 to 2003. Prior to that, he was a judge of the High Court and from 1989 a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal. From 1994 to 1996 he was the first Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He is presently a Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute at Yale University in the United States. Over the past 18 years he has become a leading expert on international criminal law.

Prof. Neels Swanepoel, Head of the Department of Law of Procedure and Law of Evidence, said the faculty is proud to honour Judge Richard Goldstone for his outstanding legal career and in particular for his contribution to the development of international criminal justice.

“As Chief Prosecutor for both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), he has contributed to precedent-setting judgments on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. His publications on various aspects of International Criminal Justice have contributed towards the stage where those bearing the greatest responsibility for human and humanitarian rights violations, will face justice.”

Prof. Swanepoel says judge Goldstone has contributed towards laying the foundations for conflict resolution in societies that have transformed from repressive to democratic rule and to what is now referred to as ‘transitional justice’.

On Thursday 2 February 2012 at 19:00, Judge Goldstone will deliver a Prestige Lecture on ‘The Future of International Criminal Justice’ in the Auditorium of the C.R Swart Building on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus.

 

Media Release
26 January 2012
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept