On 16 September 2024, the Faculty of Veterinary Science hosted a community engagement (CE) seminar to showcase the various CE projects and activities happening across the different departments within the Faculty. The event was opened by the Deputy Dean for Teaching and Learning, Prof Rhoda Leask, who stated that community engagement was an integral part of teaching and learning in the Faculty and encouraged everyone to be actively involved in it.

Dr Alfred Kgasi, the Faculty's Community Engagement Coordinator, said, 'Community engagement should be about co-creation of knowledge between the university and the community, ensuring mutually beneficial outcomes.' He went on to mention that 'universities must work together with communities as equal partners where the learner becomes the teacher, and the teacher becomes the learner'. Dr Quixi Sonntag, the guest speaker, emphasised the importance of community empowerment through capacity building, partnerships, and seeding new businesses. Several departments gave presentations showcasing their stellar projects, partnering with communities in a participatory manner. The Faculty is proud to have created this platform to showcase achievements and encourage other staff members to embrace community engagement. Community-engaged research enables external communities and social partners to collaborate with academic researchers to produce knowledge that benefits the community and the researcher. The presentations reflected on how the departments have fostered holistic, collaborative, and sustainable empowerment through their engagements with communities.

Some of the star projects that were presented on the day were:

• the small-scale livestock farmer training project in the North West and Limpopo (Department of Production Animal Studies),

• the role of Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital (OVAH) satellite clinics in Mnisi and Mamelodi (Department of Companion Animal Studies),

• educational community outreach projects (Department of Paraclinical Studies),

• the Mnisi One Health initiatives (Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases),

• physiological constraints in small-scale poultry farming (Department of Anatomy and Physiology), and

• several community outreach projects by the Onderstepoort Para-Veterinary and Veterinary Student Committee, the Veterinary Student Community Outreach group, and the Onderstepoort Postgraduate Student Association.

Overall, it was acknowledged that community engagement involved the integration of community-based approaches into the curriculum of a formal academic programme. It was also highlighted during discussions that community partners should be involved in formulating research questions, and feedback should be provided to communities on completing research projects. In conclusion, the seminar was highly successful, and it was announced that the organisers intended to hold the event annually.