VUT Ekurhuleni Campus gets down and dirty for charity
VUT Ekurhuleni Campus gets down and dirty for charity
Team Spirit: VUT Ekurhuleni Campus staff and students dedicated their time to giving back to their community.
Azande Ralephenya
One of the Vaal University of Technology’s core values is: “Excellence”; striving for excellence in everything we do in fostering human development. The VUT Ekurhuleni staff and students are living up to this value and certainly spreading the love while doing it.
On 11 August, a group of staff and students rolled up their sleeves and headed to the Leonard Cheshire Home for the Disabled in Daveyton to clean, paint and refurbish the facilities.
This initiative was spearheaded by Dr Helen Dube, VUT Ekurhuleni Campus Administrator. Dr Dube’s portfolio focuses on Community Engagement. She has therefore started the Community Engagement Committee with the aim of identifying development and upliftment projects within the community which VUT staff and students can collaborate on and assist in. The Acting Campus Principal Mr Vido Kungune was the first one to paint the wall as a gesture of commitment to strengthen the partnership. He said Ekurhuleni Campus intends to “Make every day a Mandela Day by working with the local community”. In so doing “we care, we share, we serve, and that is Ubuntu” said the Principal.
Ms Juliet Hector, Senior Administrator to the Ekurhuleni Campus Principal and who is also on the committee, says the build up towards the day of the painting and cleaning of the facilities was exciting, yet unsettling because she wasn’t sure of what the outcome would be. To her surprise, the students came in their numbers and worked hard and well throughout the day. She’s indicated that their schedule for community engagement work is quite busy for the month of August, it being Women’s Month. Their projects, therefore, will focus on women this month.
“We’re here today simply because we take our community seriously. One of the pillars of VUT is Community Engagement; that’s why we aim to ensure that we engage and participate in programmes that focus on the upliftment and development of our community. We’re not sending anyone else to do the job, we’re doing it ourselves. VUT, organisations, SRC and all students of VUT care about the community and the people who live in it,” said Emmaneul Hlaku, interim SRC Chairperson for VUT Ekurhuleni Campus, who was also hard at work with his fellow colleagues.
