The Division for Social Impact (DSI) at Stellenbosch University (SU) hosted its annual Social Impact symposium online this year and invited staff and students to join them in reflecting and exploring the effects that COVID-19 has had on social impact locally and globally.
Dr Leslie van Rooi, Senior Director: Social Impact and Transformation, directed the symposium programme and highlighted some of the key social impact projects SU has been involved in throughout the pandemic.
“Although the pandemic has confronted us with new challenges, untimed experiences, a sense of loss and pain, I've been particularly impressed by the work done within and through our University in direct partnership and collaboration with many other partners over the last couple of months," said van Rooi.
One of SU's big social impact collaborations has been through the StellenboschUnite aid action group that was founded when the COVID-19 pandemic started to assist people affected by the situation. The other StellenboschUnite partners are Stellenbosch Municipality, Visit Stellenbosch (tourism organisation), SCAN (Stellenbosch Civil Advocacy Network that represents the non-profit organisations) and the Greater Stellenbosch Development Trust (administrators).
So far, StellenboschUnite has received over R1,6 million in financial donations from SU, individuals and businesses, that has helped feed an estimated 16 000 people with food parcels.
Ernestine Meyer-Adams, Director: Division for Social Impact, who welcomed participants to the symposium, also emphasised on how the pandemic has made South Africans and institutions like SU re-evaluate its values and what is most important.
She said that going forward the DSI will have to embark on “greater social impact" initiatives and that the pandemic can also be used as a stepping-stone to address the social justice issues within local communities.
“While Stellenbosch University has steadily been working to correct the wrongs of its past, it still has a long road ahead. Social impact will also need to be reshaped in this context as the institution moves from a strong tradition of community interaction to realising social justice through its social impact work," said Meyer-Adams.
The symposium had four sessions, where speakers could share lessons learnt and insights from their COVID-19 related experiences. Among the speakers were Dr Nico Elema, who talked about African collaborations and contributions to social impact during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof Lana van Niekerk shared a presentation on rehabilitation clinicians' personal and professional reflections working in COVID-19. Dr Marianne Mckay spoke about the challenges in teaching students in winemaking online and Dr Pierre Viviers shared how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the health and wellbeing in a campus community.
All four speakers shared similar difficulties brought on by the pandemic and emphasised the important role of social impact initiatives in communities most at need. Dr Viviers applauded SU's “quick decision making" at the onset of the pandemic and said that the successful work done by Campus Health Service would not have been possible without the “teamwork effort" of its staff.
In her presentation, Van Niekerk stressed the importance of using rehabilitation clinicians, especially during a global pandemic. Her research found that many clinicians felt left out during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has since led to other social impact issues emerging, especially in vulnerable communities.
According to Elema, there are “multi-dimensional aspects to social impact" and it is important to have “collaborations and innovation" to help address issues.
SU has built on solid partnerships with other African universities throughout the years and Elema believes that there is still more SU can do to help communities and partner institutions on the continent.
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