Student RAG community service aims to break Barefoot Day record

Barefoot Day has returned with a bang and is already attempting to break records from previous years. On Friday, 18 March 2022, the Student RAG Community Service (SRCS) held their annual Barefoot Day on the North-West University (NWU) Potchefstroom-campus.

SRCS is a non-profit welfare organisation driven by NWU students on the Potchefstroom-campus. It is responsible for managing 62 projects throughout the year. Barefoot Day is an annual event held by the SRCS to gather clothing that can be distributed to these various projects. NWU campus residences and the student academic chapters all come together to help donate as much clothing to the cause as possible. 

This year was the first time since 2020 that Barefoot Day could be held in conditions as close to normal, due to fewer Covid-19 restrictions. Even though the event did take place last year, it was combined with Canned Food Day, which is another of the SRCS’s community initiatives. 

Nicolas Umeh (23), student campus council officer for community and stakeholder engagement and BSc honours student in hydrology and geohydrology, said that “barefoot day this year was much more successful because of the eased Covid-19 restrictions, as well as because our two biggest initiatives could take place on two respective days, as intended.” 

Umeh added that the success of this day also flowed from the productivity of SRCS house committee members and student academic chapters, as their attention was not divided between Barefoot Day and Canned Food Day. He said that he is more than satisfied with how the day went and praised his portfolio committee members for their hard work and dedication towards making Barefoot Day a success.

“Bringing back the competitions and games unique to Barefoot Day is another reason why the 2022 edition can be regarded as a big success! It’s always nice to implement things again that have been left out for the past few years.”

The previous record of clothing collected set by SRCS was 18.1 tonnes. This year the SRCS is confident that they have broken the record and are very excited for the final announcement to be made by the student campus council once the final numbers are in.

Hanneldi Windell (20), SRCS house committee member of Bellatrix ladies’ residence and a third-year foundation phase education student, said that Barefoot Day 2022 could be summed up as “unforgettable, sore feet, little sleep, lots of counting and life-long memories.”

She also said that once you step back and look at everything you have accomplished throughout the day, despite the amount of clothing your residence gathered, you realise how incredible it feels to know that you are going to help so many people. “Barefoot Day 2022 was everything I could have ever hoped for,” said Windell.

The clothing and other items collected during Barefoot Day are donated to the community where the need arises. House committee members, student academic chapters, other non-profit organisations and even students can contact Tiaan van Staden (24), the SRCS portfolio committee member in charge of projects, to schedule a time and day where they can go to the SRCS containers and collect clothing to hand out to the community.  

SRCS also has an annual Street Boutique which was derived from a similar initiative launched in Cape Town. “Street Boutique aims to give the less fortunate of Potchefstroom a unique shopping experience,” Van Staden said. During this day, people from the community can “shop” at a selected location in Potchefstroom, taking the items they need. “Street Boutique is scheduled to take place later this year, the dates are dependent on the student campus council.”

“We as students are so privileged to have clothing, whereas some people in the community don’t even have shoes or a proper piece of clothing, and to help them, we [the SRCS] have projects like Barefoot Day to assist,” said Umeh. – Jana Schlechter and Anchen Coetzee