Pretoria - Communications Minister Faith Muthambi will be the keynote speaker at the year-end function of the University of Venda’s students’ voluntary body, the Amplifying Community Voices Students Association (ACVOSA), on Saturday, November 5.
ACVOSA’s event will be held at the University of Venda’s Research Conference Centre. The Minister’s address is themed ‘Perspectives on university students/graduates as agents of social change through construction of stable families, self-driven community development and value-based contribution to national and international development’.
ACVOSA operates as part of the Institute for Rural Development at the University of Venda (Univen) and is a voluntary body of students dedicated to facilitating development work and helping the needy in under-developed communities.
ACVOSA was established to promote democracy in rural community development, as articulated in the organisation’s Charter of Positive Values. The programme rests on the need for creating grassroots community “ventilation” platforms and incorporating the decisions of residents and their leaders in rural areas into a structured rural development programme.
ACVOSA promotes self-driven rural development within grassroots communities. In the process, opportunities are created for both undergraduate and postgraduate students from various departments and centres of the university to acquire and sharpen skills for championing participatory rural development.
In 2010, ACVOSA was adopted as the flagship university programme for showcasing a community oriented scholarship. - SAnews.gov.za
