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05 February 2025 | Story Vuyelwa Mbebe | Photo Supplied
Regional Committee SAACHS
The Kovsie Health staff members who also serve on the SAACHS regional committee: Shibashiba Moabelo, Riana Johnson, Sarien de Necker, Theresa de Vries, and Emmerencia Sibanda.

The University of the Free State (UFS) took centre stage at the annual South African Association of Campus Health Services (SAACHS) Conference, held at the Windmill Casino Conference Centre in Bloemfontein from 8 to 10 January 2025. 

The conference was themed ‘Student Centredness’ and brought together representatives from 22 higher education institutions to explore critical issues related to student health and wellness.

SAACHS is a national association comprising tertiary institutions that offer primary and occupational healthcare services on campuses across South Africa. This year’s conference covered a range of pressing topics, including HIV support for students, strategies to assist pregnant students, telehealth collaborations, caregiver self-care, student health-seeking behaviours, food insecurity, and best practices in campus health emergency medical services.

Sr Riana Johnson, Deputy Director of Kovsie Health and regional chair of the Free State and Northern Cape SAACHS committee, emphasised the impact of the UFS’s involvement. “The strong representation of UFS speakers highlighted the strides we have made in campus health services and the invaluable contributions our institution brings to these crucial discussions,” she said.

As key organisers, Johnson and her team – including Sr Sarien de Necker and colleagues from the UFS and the Central University of Technology (CUT) – were instrumental in securing speakers, selecting relevant topics, and managing conference logistics. Their efforts ensured the smooth running of an event that encouraged knowledge-sharing and collaboration among campus health professionals.

“The conference provided a vital platform for networking and exchanging ideas,” Johnson said. “UFS’s active participation helped strengthen partnerships with institutions such as the Department of Health and promoted shared solutions to student wellness challenges.”

She added that hosting the event underscored the UFS’s leadership in campus health and allowed other institutions to learn from its initiatives. Discussions and collaborations at the conference enhanced awareness campaigns and reinforced a collective commitment to student well-being.

Looking ahead, Johnson believes the insights gained will shape the future of Kovsie Health. “Exploring new health technologies and expanding student-centred health initiatives are among our top priorities,” she concluded. “The knowledge shared at this conference will undoubtedly influence how we evolve our services to meet the needs of our students more effectively.”

News Archive

International scholar talks about the right to food in South Africa
2012-06-06

 

Prof. Frans Swanepoel, Senior Director Research Development; Prof. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr; and Prof. Melanie Walker.
Photo: Supplied
06 June 2012

Prof. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr of the New School University, New York, in the United States of America, recently presented a seminar on the Bloemfontein Campus. The seminar was hosted by Prof. Melanie Walker, Senior Professor and SARChI-nominated candidate for Higher Education and Human Development.

Prof. Fukuda-Parr, currently Head of the Graduate Programme in International Affairs at the New School University, spoke about the Right to Food in SA. She explored the relationship between two approaches – human rights and capabilities (or human development). This was done to enhance the understanding of both as theoretical paradigms, as public policy frameworks and as approaches to development.

Prof. Fukuda-Parr is a Japanese national, a graduate from Cambridge University in the UK and a former professor at Harvard University in the USA. From 1995 to 2004, she was main author and Director of the UNDP Human Development Reports.
 
In addition to these reports, some of her publications include: The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal Development; Readings in Human Development; Rethinking Technical Cooperation - Reforms for capacity building in Africa; Capacity for Development - Old Problems, New Solutions and numerous papers and book chapters on issues of poverty, violent conflict, gender, human rights and technology. She was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to the Committee on Development Policy.

 

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