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10 April 2024 | Story Okuhle April | Photo SUPPLIED
Sustainability and entrepreneurship workshop 2024
The UFS Community Engagement Festival showcased sustainability, entrepreneurship, and social justice initiatives as part of efforts to empower students.

The Engaged Scholarship Office at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently hosted the Community Engagement Festival, a week-long event focused on sustainability, entrepreneurship, and social justice for students. The festival, which forms part of the office’s broader Community Engagement project, showcased various activities and initiatives aimed at educating participants about these critical topics.

A standout feature of the festival, which was hosted on the UFS’s Bloemfontein Campus, was its emphasis on sustainability. Activities included crafting beads from recycled magazines into bracelets and making soap from eco-friendly material. Beyond promoting sustainability and entrepreneurship, the festival also aimed to foster social cohesion by helping first-year students navigate university life.

Gernus Terblanche, an assistant researcher who heads the Engaged Scholarship Office, emphasised the importance of such initiatives. “The Community Engagement project’s focal points are environmental affairs, social justice – where we make use of the hashtag #KovsiesCare – and health and wellness, where the project aims to raise awareness about menstrual health and find ways to assist with sustainable menstrual health,” he said.

The Community Engagement project has grown significantly over the past year, expanding from six members to a community of 200 individuals. Successful projects include a worm farming initiative for income generation, which teaches students how to cultivate and sell worms for composting.

With support from entities such as the KovsieACT office, CTM, the Bloem Shelter and the Bloemfontein National Hospital, the project has gained widespread recognition for its impactful work.

Additionally, the project’s efforts align with the graduate attributes of UFS’s Vision 130, which emphasises skills like communication, critical thinking, and professionalism. Terblanche highlighted the importance of these attributes in shaping well-rounded graduates.

Looking forward, the Community Engagement project plans to sustain its work, with upcoming initiatives like a sewing competition to further engage and empower students within the university community.

News Archive

Theology hosts seminar series on transformation of knowledge
2012-02-28

 

At the lecture was, from left, Dr Choice Makhetha, Vice-Rector: External Relations (acting), Prof. Dennis Francis, speaker and Dean of the Education Faculty, and Prof. Francois Tolmie, Dean of the Theology Faculty.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs
28 February 2012

 
Our Faculty of Theology decided, as part of its strategic planning, to approach external advisers to gain a new perpective on the faculty’s programme and curriculum. 

To this end, a series of lectures by visiting professors on the implications of epistemological transformation for theology were presented. The professors represented disciplines apart from Theology and attracted an audience from fields other than Theology.
 
A topic that was put under the spotlight recently was “ A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Curriculum” by Prof. Dennis Francis, the Dean of our Faculty of Education. Academics from various disciplines attended Prof. Francis’s talk. 
 
Anybody is welcome to attend the lectures. The sessions are advertised on the calendar on our website. 

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