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UFS hosts festival promoting sustainability and entrepreneurship

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

New residences open on Bloemfontein Campus

2013-01-21

Photo: Johan Roux
21 January 2013

Beginning 2013, the Bloemfontein Campus is seeing the opening of two new residences where male and female students will be housed under one roof but in separate units. Each residence will house 250 students.

House ConLaurês and House Outeniqua were opened for their first-years and Residence Committee (RC) on Friday 18 January 2013. The two newly Residence Heads, Mr Frank Makhabane (ConLaurês) and Mrs Leani Wimble (Outeniqua) welcomed the new residents.

The uniqueness of these residences is that they will be the first co-ed residences on campus. These residences are wheel chair friendly with fully equipped disabled rooms available. All signage has also been done in Braille. Each floor of the new residences has two lounges, as well as a fully fitted kitchen.

The Prime of House ConLaurês, Sherilyn Roelofse, says, “We aim to create a living space that is holistic and welcoming and will allow our residence members to be able to excel in a number of things”. Sherilyn says ConLaurês comes from the word “Condo Laurus”, which means dreams of victory. The House’s slogan is “The Symphony of Dreams”. Students came up with the name for the residence.

Tsatsi Mokoena, RC member responsible for RAG at House ConLaurês says RC members have been working hard for the past few months, trying to imagine how to do things without a physical structure. ConLaurês will be a residence with an inspirational living space where each student feels welcome, respected for who they are and at home, so that they will have the confidence to follow their dreams.”

The Prime of Outeniqua, Vusumzi Mesatywa says, “Change is always welcome and that is the mindset that we will be embracing as the new residences. When a student graduates, we need them to graduate not only as academics, but also as humans, holistic beings”.

Marla Stanier, RC First-Year Mentor at Outeniqua, says that new experiences await every student that walks through the doors of the residence. “As excited as we are, this new experience will test us in many ways.However, if we stand together as one, we will succeed.”

Mr Quintin Koetaan, Director of Housing and Residence Affairs, says, “The opening of ConLaurês and Outeniqua is a dream come true, providing accommodation for a new generation of students in the 21st Century”.

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