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#UFSMandelaMonth2024: Every Day is Mandela Day at UFS

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 document Click 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

Horse-riding therapy improves self-confidence in children

2016-05-10

This group of Honours students in Psychology at the University of the Free State was honoured with the best postgraduate Service Learning award at the prize-giving function of the Faculty of the Humanities. From the left are Adriana de Vries, Hershel Meyerowitz, Simoné le Roux, Wijbren Nell, Melissa Taljaard, and Gerán Lordan. Photo: Marizanne Cloete.

Horse-riding therapy helps to improve self-confidence in children, and changes their perception of themselves. It puts them in a totally new environment where they can be free of any judgement.

According to Wijbren Nell, who achieved his Honours degree in Psychology at the University of the Free State (UFS), this is the ideal therapy when working with children with disabilities. He said it was amazing to see how they developed.

He was part of a group of Honours students in Psychology who received the best postgraduate Service Learning award in the Faculty of the Humanities for their community project. In 2015, this project by Wijbren, Hershel Meyerowitz, Gerán Lordan, Melissa Taljaard, Simoné le Roux, and Adriana de Vries, was part of their module Community and Social Psychology. They were honoured at the Faculty’s prize-giving function on 15 April 2016.

Purpose of project

“Our purpose with the project was to demonstrate to the children that they could still accomplish something, despite their disabilities,” Wijbren said. The students work on a weekly basis with learners from the foundation phase of the Lettie Fouché School in Bloemfontein. Marie Olivier’s Equistria Therapeutic Development Trust serves as the site for the community project. She has a long standing partnership with the UFS.

Horse-riding and therapy

According to Wijbren, the idea was to stimulate the psychomotor functioning of the children, as well as to promote their psychological well-being. He said research has shown that there is incredible therapeutic value in horse-riding. In this specific case, it has improved the children’s self-confidence, as they may have a poor self-image as a result of their disabilities.

“At the beginning of the year, there was a girl who didn’t even want to come close to a horse, let alone getting onto the horse. We kept on trying, and, once she was on the horse, we couldn’t get her down. This was the amazing thing about the project,” said Wijbren.

Award a surprise

Wijbren said the award was a honour and surprise to his group. He was full of praise for Dr Pravani Naidoo, a lecturer in Psychology at the UFS, who coordinates the therapeutic horse riding project. “She has a tremendous passion for this project, and challenged us to think on our feet. She is a real inspiration.”

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