NEWSLETTERCommunity Engagement

August 2 0 1 3

Issue 2

Community Engagement Plan and Strategy The CE plan is now in the final stages of its finalisation. The plan encompasses the philosophy of CE, Vision 2020, STEPS and its strategies. The compilation of the plan was a collective effort of members of the CE committee and faculties. Of value contained in the plan, is the articulation of the following:

CE facilitates to maintain and enhance the University’s standing as a significant contributor to the social and economic environment. It engages in the community via their partnerships in the following ways; intellectually, educationally, culturally and economically. The communities can be local, regional, national and international communities.

Database of CEDue to the revision of the plan, the CE database and template was also revised.

Consequently, the following categories of CE are evident; Integration of Research and CE; Integration of Teaching and Learning and CE, Integration of Teaching and Learning, Research and CE; CE and Innovation, and CE, TL, Research and Innovation. The emerging foci areas are;

• Eradicating poverty and related conditions• Promoting human dignity and health • Increasing social capacity • Development • Education• Balancing a sustainable environment with a

competitive industry

Wheels of HopeThe Wheels of Hope focuses on the diagnostic and treatment aspects of heart and lung conditions as well as training and education programmes in central South Africa.

One of these aspects is rheumatic fever (RF), which is a delayed sequel to a throat infection caused by a group A-streptococcus. More than one third of affected children develop carditis, followed by progressive and permanent valvular lesions, known as rheumatic heart disease (RHD). Over a million people live with rheumatic valvular disease in sub-Saharan Africa. However, in central South Africa no information is available on prevalence rates, feasibility of mass programmes for its detection, or on the adequacy or effectiveness of present methods of secondary prophylaxis. It is suspected that several patients diagnosed as having RF or RHD are not under continuous medical care and are not receiving regular prophylactic treatment.  Therefore, the aim of the project is to implement a surveillance programme to acquire information on the overall prevalence of RHD and to assess its load on healthcare services in central South Africa.

This project is sponsored by John Williams Motors in Bloemfontein, Rosepark Hospital and private contributions from our surgeons.

Written by Dr Lezelle Botes

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Service learning celebrationsIt was RSVP time for the service learning carnival that was held to celebrate success.  The successful completion of the service learning module in restaurant service was attended by grade 11 learners from various high schools in Bloemfontein. Hospitality Management students spread out through Bloemfontein to present the module at the following schools: Navalsig, Eunice, Petunia, Heatherdale, Martie Du Plessis and Jim Fouche. The module is presented to equip learners with valuable practical skills in restaurant service and waitering. This not only helps teachers to enhance their curriculum but enable learners to work in restaurants as waiters to earn pocket money. It also provides the learners a peek into the exciting world of hospitality management.  A total of 130 learners attended the module which was presented over a period of 18 hours. Learners were issued with a certificate for completing the module successfully.

Present in the photograph are learners from the various schools, hospitality management students and MrJacques Ras, lecturer Hospitality Management.

Written by Mr Jacques Ras

Wall Mural at Onze Rust SchoolOnze Rust Pre-Primary School at General Hattingh Street in Bloemfontein was identified as a partner for this community project. The schools inner wall was in need of repainting.

The aim of this project was to repaint the existing wall, in order to create a stimulating and positive environment for the children at Onze Rust Pre-Primary School. The second aim was to document the ECP student’s perspectives of the experience through the use of in-depth individual interviews. The ECP students engaged with the community and applied the skills acquired in the Fine Art drawing and Printmaking & Painting modules of the curriculum.

The most important impact of this project was the positive effect that the newly painted wall had on the children from Onze-Rust pre-primary school. The students and lecturers experienced a difference they can make in a child’s life.

Written by Mrs Lisa Nel

CUT Winter School of 2013The CUT Winter School began with a prestigious opening ceremony on 1 July 2013. Professor Thandwa Mthembu, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the CUT, delivered the welcoming address. Mr Stanley Malope, Head of Department of the Free State Department of Education, delivered the keynote address on behalf of the MEC: Education.

The aim of this project is to support grade 12 learners in their thrust towards improved results in the National Senior Certificate examinations at the end of 2013. This kind of partnership between the FSDoE and the CUT is a praiseworthy initiative that the whole country needs to take note of. Once again, Standard Bank South Africa generously funded this endeavour.

Some 1400 learners are being exposed to core subjects that do not only contribute to their overall pass rates at the end of 2013, but also elevate their knowledge and skills that will ensure easier access to institutions of higher learning. We are delighted that successful and competent lecturers and teachers are being roped in to present lessons of high quality to our learners. Their achievements resulting from such interventions regularly also render access to available rewards and bursaries for pursuing careers of choice, also after graduating from the CUT.

The Schools Advancement Academy of the CUT utilised its structures and dedicated teams in order to plan and implement the Winter School programme over two weeks during the July 2013 recess which ended on Friday 12 July 2013.

Written by Mr Giel de Villiers and Ms Dineo Mpeko

InnovationInnovation at Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) enabled a medical first in South Africa, when Ennica Makge, a young woman from Gauteng who was born without a nose and nasal passages received extensive jaw and facial surgery and a new nasal prosthesis at Mediclinic Kloof in Pretoria on Saturday, 22 June 2013.

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To allow Mahkge (19) to breathe, an opening in her windpipe was created at birth, which unfortunately increased her tendency to develop upper respiratory tract infections, and ultimately caused a chronic infection. This resulted in the need to do a nose replacement operation, where nasal passages were created by moving Mahkge’s jaw forward and down, in order to create space for the new nasal passages.

The Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT), together with a team of specialists from the University of Pretoria and Mediclinic Kloof has been working tirelessly for months to make this life-changing surgery possible.

The Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (CRPM) at CUT played a vital role in the reconstructive surgery by using Additive Manufacturing technology, better known as three dimensional printing to construct two models of Mahkge’s skull so that the team of doctors could carry out pre-operative planning and simulate the operati n.

Inquiries: Mr Gerrie Booysen

SAHECEF SEMINAR: DEVELOPING LOCAL ECONOMIES: ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION“How can universities develop the society to which it belongs? In reality no university is ever able to help develop a society unless the society is first ready to help develop the university. It is a symbiotic relationship “(Mazrui, 2003: 135).

The seminar was held on the 7th and 8th May 2013, at the Bunting Road Campus of the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The speakers were Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Internationalisation, Advancement & Student Affairs at UJ (Community Engagement (CE) presented the notion of ‘community as host’. He felt that a CE strategy should acknowledge (and show gratitude) to the local community as host, but reminded us that the ‘community’ in CE was not confined to the local – as he stated “communities are sometimes geographically not here. Mr Mlulami Manjezi presented a case study of how a Rural Development and Innovation Hub could be established to assist rural enterprises as part of a university’s CE strategy.

Mr Tavern Jaftha, Senior Manager at the Small Enterprises Development Agency (SEDA), he stated, SEDA sought to shift from not just focusing on the employable but also the entrepreneurial, through the creation of an enabling environment.

Dr Marius Venter, Director for the Centre for Local Economic Development (CENLED) at UJ began his presentation with a call to urge colleagues and communities to step away from the ‘waiting game’ towards frontline action. He reminded delegates that community development (CD) and local economic development (LED) were ensconced in the constitution.

Ms Jacqueline Kew, from the Department of Accounting and the University of Cape Town and co-author of the

annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report started her presentation with facts around the poor growth rate of the South African economy, the even worse early-state entrepreneurship activities rate in South Africa compared to other African countries and globally. She correlated this to the poor education environment in South Africa on the one-hand, and cultural and social norms on the other.

Ms Jennifer Catalano and Ms Amy Newcomb from the Talloires network presented both a background on the Talloires Network itself, and in more detail the Youth Economic Participation Initiative that they are both involved with. They invited delegates to get involved in both determining the practicalities of sustaining an international dialogue (as a community of practice addressing the issue), and participating in the said dialogue.

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They were particularly interested in engaging around the following, amongst others, research questions:

1. Where does CE and youth economic employment intersect?

2. How do you teach entrepreneurship? 3. When is international knowledge useful and not

useful? 4. How do universities contextualise entrepreneurship

training? 5. How do we train entrepreneurs to have a social

impact?

Mr Earl Morais, an entrepreneur, shared with delegates his life story, starting as a teenager (during apartheid) working in a shebeen and honing his business skills at a young age, to then becoming a professional boxer and his global travels where he experienced his first entrepreneurial curiosity, to his starting his own business adventure. His presentation correlated his boxing experience to his business experience, sharing how his knowledge from boxing (as a team effort) was applied to his business experience.

SAHECEFCUT is a member of the South Africa Higher Education Community Engagement Forum (SAHECEF). Staff members are encouraged to visit the SAHECEF site (www.SAHECEF.ning.com) and sign up. This will give you the opportunity to correspond with academics at other universities who are involved in Community Engagement   activities.

SAHECEF AGM, Board Meeting and workshopCUT is the proud host to SAHECEF for the upcoming meeting from 17 October 2013 to 18 October 2013. This is the fourth AGM of SAHECEF. A total of 24 universities CE representatives will be attending these two days. It is proposed that on 18 October 2013, the National Development plan will be interrogated. At this workshop, members of CUT and the wider community will also be  invited.

Workshops“Re-visioning the three roles of teaching, research and community engagement: from ‘Pillars to People’ by Dr John  Boughey

Dr John Boughey once again graced this University on 19 April 2013. Following on from February’s workshop participants’ recapped the mental models of Teaching, Research and Community Engagement and the perceived barriers to greater integration.

The facilitator then shared with participants an emergent model which conceptualises teaching, research and community engagement in terms of people rather than pillars and which implies the need for a more holistic

approach to the notion of ‘engagement’. The day’s deliberations were used to critique the University’s draft Community Engagement Plan, prior to its submission to Faculty Boards.

Upcoming Events• Acknowledgement event to the public - 4th term • National Development Plan 18 October 2013

GENERAL ENQUIRIESResearch and Innovation: Community EngagementMrs Jeeva Munsamy (CE Manager)051 507 3583jmunsamy@cut.ac.za

Prof. Laetus Lategan (Dean: Research and Innovation)051 507 3279llategan@cut.ac.za

POSTAL ADDRESSCentral University of Technology, Free StatePrivate Bag X20539Bloemfontein9300

WEBSITEwww.cut.ac.za