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18 July 2024 | Story VALENTINO NDABA | Photo SUPPLIED
Nelson Mandela Month 2024
Celebrating #UFSMandelaMonth2024: Building a brighter future through community and care.

Mandela Month at the University of the Free State (UFS) is a time to honour Nelson Mandela's legacy through reflection, action, and community engagement. Guided by Vision 130, UFS aims to make a profound societal impact by fostering sustainable relationships and supporting societal development.

Community Engagement Indaba

As South Africa celebrates Mandela Month, the Directorate of Community Engagement hosted the Community Engagement Indaba at the Bloemfontein Campus from 10-11 July 2024. This year's theme was “Building Self-reliance, Self-sufficiency, and Self-sustainable Livelihoods for Entrepreneurship”. 

The Indaba was a vibrant platform for staff, students, and community members to exchange knowledge and skills on how to implement the objectives of our Engaged Scholarship strategy and policy.

This was an opportunity to engage in education, training, and networking with experts from various disciplines. Topics of discussion included:

• Self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and self-sustainable living
• Contextualising curriculum to respond to societal impact
• Entrepreneurship
• Personal development and transformation
• Subsistence farming
• Growing and manufacturing of cannabis products
• Nutrition and health, food security

Helping future educators dress for success

Mandela said: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” This Mandela Month, the Teaching Practice Directorate supported fourth-year and Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students who lack professional clothes for their teaching practice, impacting their confidence and hampering their first impressions.

The Faculty of Education of the Qwaqwa Campus is conducted a donation drive for formal clothing and workwear to help our UFS-produced aspiring educators enter the world of work with enthusiasm and confidence.

Soup kitchen at HCYCC

On Mandela Day, the Faculty of Theology set up a soup kitchen at the Heidedal Children and Youth Care Centre. This event is an initiative aimed at providing nutritious meals to children and youth, fostering community engagement.

It’s in your hands: Food Environment Programme

The ongoing Food Environment Programme tackles student food insecurity, aiming to create a healthy food environment. Says Annelize Visagie from the Food Environment Office: “The Food Environment Programme is designed to address the many dimensions of the food environment; assisting students who suffer from food insecurity and hunger is part of the overall programme. The University of the Free State has previously identified student food insecurity and hunger as a significant problem, with as many as 59% of students identified as not knowing where their next meal will come from. In addition, they have recognised that food insecurity has added stress to students’ lives which has a negative impact on their studies.”

The programmme includes the following initiatives:

No Student Hungry Programme: Provides one balanced meal per day.
• Food Parcel Programme: Distributes food parcels with non-perishable items.
• Community Gardens: Enhances campus food security in collaboration with Kovsie ACT and the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

Eat&Succeed: Provides valuable insights, practical tips on making affordable and nutritious meals.

Click to view documentClick on the email to donate to these initiatives or call +27 51 401 3258.

Join us in making a difference and showing our commitment to care as we celebrate Mandela Month by at the UFS. Together, we can honour Nelson Mandela’s legacy of service and societal development. Every Day is Mandela Day at UFS.

News Archive

UFS Chemistry wins dti award
2010-11-02

At the awards ceremony are, from the left: Director-General of Trade and Industry Mr Tshediso Matona, Prof. Andreas Roodt and the Deputy-Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Bongi Maria Ntuli.
Photo: S Osman

The research group of Prof. Andreas Roodt, Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, won the first prize in the category Development of Small Medium and Micro-Enterprises (SMME) at the annual Department of Trade and Industry’s (dti) award ceremony.

Prof. Roodt received the prize for the high-technology project Development of novel nuclear pharmaceuticals in the Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP).

The Deputy-Minister of Trade and Industry Bongi Maria Ntuli, and Director-General Tshediso Matona presented the prize at the gala dinner held at Gallagher Estate, Gauteng in October 2010.

The dti’s Annual Technology Awards recognise excellence in research and aim to raise awareness on the benefits of using technology to improve the competitiveness of enterprises, within the local and global arena. Individuals and organisations are recognised for their efforts in advancing and promoting technology interests and emerging enterprises.

The technology awards cover the achievements of three of the dti technology programmes collectively, namely THRIP, managed by the National Research Foundation (NRF); the Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII) managed by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC); and the Small Enterprise Development Agency (seda) Technology Programme (stp).

Prof. Roodt, also vice-president of the European Crystallographic Association, who has just returned from a series of lectures abroad after being elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK, has received funding in excess of R3 million over the past two years to set up a specialised laboratory for synthesising active compounds. Key partners in this project are Dr Gerdus Kemp from PETLabs Pharmaceuticals in Pretoria; Prof. Connie Medlen (pharmacologist), recently appointed affiliate professor at UFS Chemistry; as well as Prof. Deon Visser from the Inorganic Chemistry research group at the UFS.

The research aims to produce new nuclear medicinal agents for the early diagnosis of cancer, heart and brain defects, and even HIV/ Aids.

Two doctoral students, Alice Brink and Marietjie Schutte, are currently actively involved in this project. They are the recipients of prestige scholarships introduced by the UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, under the UFS Research Initiative (the Advanced Biomolecular Systems Cluster) to complete their Ph.D. studies.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za  
2 November 2010

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