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Campaign raises hearing loss and Deaf awareness

07 October 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied

Deaf awareness Campaign 2024 — Boipelo Leteane, Amahle Jemane, Zinzile Sibiya (Speech-Language Pathologist at UAH), Ntsatsi Dingaan-Mokushane, Andani Madzivhandila, Yolanda Nzume (Administration Clerk at UAH) and Dr Phindile Shangase at the Deaf Awareness Campaign at the UFS.

The Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH), in partnership with the Division of Public Health at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently held their annual Deaf Awareness Campaign with much success.

The campaign, which is the brainchild of Andani Madzivhandila, a Cochlear Implant MAPping Audiologist at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH), is in its second year and was attended by Deaf students from the UFS, community members and academics from the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences, including Dr Phindile Shangase from the Division of Public Health at the UFS in collaboration with UAH Speech Therapy and Audiology staff.

Purpose of the event

The event took place on 28 September 2024 in the foyer of the Francoise Retief building. September is the International Month for Deaf People. The Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Med-EL assisted with some sponsorship to make the event a success. Ntsatsi Dingaan-Mokushane, the Assistant Director for Speech Therapy and Audiology at UAH, opened the ceremony and highlighted the importance of Deaf Awareness Campaigns in general and further elaborated on the World Federation of the Deaf theme for 2024, which is “Sign up for sign language rights”.

Dr Shangase shared her experiences and challenges of living with hearing loss and how she manages it, and further elaborated that the purpose of the event was to raise awareness of the different types of hearing loss, especially deafness. It was also to raise awareness of the challenges encountered by Deaf people and to discuss available technologies to assist those with hearing loss as well as those who are born profoundly Deaf.

The event is organised to share experiences from professionals, those with hearing loss as well as the Deaf community, to share experiences on coping and managing life with hearing loss as well as deafness. The organisers try to educate the public about Deaf culture, sign language and the experiences of Deaf people and to help combat stereotypes, stigmas and misconceptions surrounding deafness. The event is also to promote inclusion and encourage equal access to education, employment, healthcare as well as breaking down communication barriers and address systemic and social barriers that hinder Deaf individuals’ participation.

Sharing lived experiences

According to Dr Shangase, the event highlighted the progress as well as gaps in support interventions for those who live with hearing loss and deafness. Says Dr Shangase: “Availability of technologies was highlighted as facilitating different forms of participation for those with hearing loss and deafness. However, it was clear that most of the available technologies are not being adopted in workplaces as well as in communities.”

Boipelo Leteane, a parent of a two-year-old child who was born deaf, shared her experiences and her journey before and after her child had undergone a cochlear implant, while Madzivhandila shed some light on the challenges faced by healthcare professionals when hearing loss/deafness is diagnosed and needs to be managed.

Amahle Jemane also shared her personal experiences and challenges she faces daily as a signing young female in South Africa, where the majority of the population use spoken language, and she uses South African Sign Language (SASL).

News Archive

Multi-disciplinary research approach at UFS

2005-10-25

UFS follows multi-disciplinary research approach with opening of new centre

“A new way of doing business in necessary in the research and teaching of agriculture and natural sciences in South Africa. We must move away from departmentalised research infrastructures and a multi-disciplinary approach to research involving several disciplines must be adapted,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Prof van Schalkwyk delivered the keynote address during the launch of the Centre for Plant Health Management (CePHMa) at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein today (21 October 2005). CePHMa is an initiative of the UFS Department of Plant Sciences.

According to Prof van Schalkwyk a tertiary institution must practice multi-disciplinary research to be a world-class research institution. “It is difficult for researchers to admit that they do not know a lot about each other’s area of speciality. It is therefore necessary for researchers to make a paradigm shift and to focus on inter-disciplinary co-operation. To do this, we must encourage them to work together and to find a common language to communicate ideas en establish symbiotic relationships,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

“We tend to think that research is better and faster if it is specialised. This is not true. The new generation of scientists are young and they are trained to form a concept of the total system and not to focus on a specific area of speciality. At the UFS we encourage this approach to research. This was one of the main reasons for the establishment of CePHMa,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.
CePHMa is the only centre of its kind in Africa and is established to extend the expertise in plant health management in South Africa and in Africa, to train experts in plant health and to conduct multi-disciplinary research about the health of agricultural crops.

“CePHMa is a virtual centre comprising of ten disciplines applicable to crop production and crop protection,” said Prof Wijnand Swart, Chairperson of CePHMa during the opening ceremony.

“The UFS is the leading institution in Africa in terms of news crop development and manages three research programmes that concentrate on new crops, i.e. the New Crop Pathology Programme, the New Crop Development Programme and the Insects on New Crops Programme. Other applied research programmes that are unique to the UFS are genetic resistance to rust diseases of small grain crops and sustainable integrated disease management of field crops,” said Prof Swart.

“Because the expected growth in population will be 80% in 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, the future demands of food produce in Africa will be influenced. Therefore research will in future be focused on ways to improve food security by employing agricultural systems that are economically viable and environmentally sound,” said Prof Swart.

“Thorough knowledge of the concept of holistic plant health management is crucial to meet the challenge and it is therefore imperative that innovative crop protection and crop production strategies, with particular emphasis on plant health, be adopted. This is why the Department of Plant Sciences initiated the establishment of CePHMA,” he said.

According to Prof Swart there is a shortage of expertise in plant health management. “The UFS has shown the potential to address the demand of the sub-continent of Africa regarding expertise training and CePHMa is the leader in southern Africa to provide in this need,” he said.

The appropriateness and quality of training in plant health management is reflected in the fact that students from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho have already been trained or are in the process of being trained in at the UFS.

Scientists from CePHMa have forged partnerships with numerous national and international institutions including the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), various community trusts, seed, pesticide and agricultural chemical companies, in addition to overseas universities.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
21 October 2005

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