The Community Engagement (CE) departement of the Rhodes University hosted a partner meeting in the Assumption Development Centre on Thursday the 29th of January.
30 people from different schools, NGOs and NPOs attended the meeting. After a warm welcome and an introduction phase we started talking about the “Student Volunteering Programme” (SVP). This programme enables students of the Rhodes University to work with local social organisations and schools. Nosipho Mngomezulu, SVP coordinator, explained the necessities of both sides, the organisations’ as well as the students’, and gave a lot of input to get the most out of the cooperation with students. Additionally the partners shared their experiences of earlier collaborations.
Afterwards a new student organisation was introduced. The initiative “Siyakhana @ Makana”. It is an campain for students to work with social organisations on specific projects. The difference to the regular “Student Volunteering Programme” is not helping the organisation in their daily business but starting a new project for the organisation. One cooperation will last 17 weeks where the students are supposed to learn about general project work at first then start planning the project and finally execute it.
Thank you very much for the informing and interesting meeting. We’d love to participate again.