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Making an impact through care: Outreach programme benefits Deaf community

08 September 2022 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin

Bartimea school outreach — Annemarie Le Roux and two of the learners from the Bartimea School for the Deaf and Blind.

It was a perfect Spring Day with laughter, cupcakes, and the brightest smiles on excited little faces of learners from the Bartimea School for the Deaf and Blind in front of the Main Building of the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). The UFS Department of Deaf Studies and South African Sign Language hosted the school on 1 September 2022 for a day of learning, fun, and lots of games to kickstart #DeafAwarenessMonth.

The relationship between the department and the school is stronger than ever, and after a two-year hiatus both staff and learners were basking in the excitement of the day. The school faced closure back in 2016 and it was in this year that the department and the student group Signals started a project to visit the school, which saw them participate in different activities with the learners. “We helped the school with the cleaning up of the school grounds and painting the playgrounds,” said Annemarie Le Roux, South African Sign Language lecturer at the UFS.

UFS could set blueprint for outreach to Deaf communities

The department and the UFS are in a unique position to set a blueprint for engaged scholarship with the Bartimea school in Thaba ’Nchu and the Thiboloha School for the Deaf and Blind in Phuthaditjhaba (formerly Qwaqwa).

The Bartimea outreach is an important project for the department because it not only enables the students to put their teachings into practice but also demonstrates the engaged scholarship mandate of the UFS. Le Roux believes more teachers should be able to use SASL in schools, and the UFS could facilitate such training opportunities. “It would be wonderful if the university and the school could work together in engaged teaching and learning.” She added that leaners at the two schools sometimes do not get all the information they need when applying to universities.

Le Roux thinks the relationship between Bartimea and the department could enable meaningful action to foster engaged citizenship. “We can help with fundraising, because the school is always in need of funding, as most parents cannot contribute to helping the school.”

Putting teaching excellence into practice

This engagement with Bartimea allows students to put what they have learned in lecture halls into practice. “Students who attend the visits to the school or the school to the university understand more about the culture, and want to learn more and develop their language skills,” Le Roux said. “Before the COVID-19 pandemic we took our third-year and honours students to the school to give them access to the Deaf community.” Furthermore, the engagement helps students gain a better understanding of Deaf culture and sign language.

Also visit our Deaf Awareness Month webpage for more information.

News Archive

Kovsie student on his way to the record books

2011-10-12

Hermann van Heerden
Photo: Gerhard Louw

Ten hours. That’s how long Kovsie student Hermann van Heerden held a stationary wheelie in his wheelchair by lifting the front wheels of his wheelchair. The second-year disabled student now stands to get his name in the Guinness World Record Book for the longest stationary wheelie in a wheelchair.

Starting at 03:15 and holding on until 13:15 on Tuesday, 11 October 2011, Hermann achieved what he set out to do. Now he is waiting for the Guinness World Record office to verify his world-record attempt.

The minimum time set for Hermann to achieve a Guinness World Record was four hours, but the B.Ed. student went six hours over this time, wheeling non-stop for ten hours. During this time the Kovsie student had no food or water over his lips, nor was he allowed to go to the bathroom.

Hermann’s Guinness World Record attempt forms part of the ten-year celebrations of the Unit for Students with Disabilities (USD) at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Accomplishing his record attempt, a tired Hermann said the first thing he wanted to do was to eat. Hermann, who was born with spina bifida, a developmental congenital disorder, said he did not have a lot of preparation for his world-record attempt, as he had always been in a wheelchair.

According to the Guinness World Records press office, the closest record to the one Hermann set out to achieve, is for the longest continuous wheelie in a wheelchair. This was achieved by Michael Miller from the USA who covered a distance of 16, 12 km on the rear wheels of his wheelchair.

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