At CampusKey, our community is at the centre of everything we do. Being confronted with a crisis highlighted our efforts to connect people and communities.
In the past two days, as a devastating fire ripped through Block A in our Glyn building in Pretoria on 9 July, we have seen how strong the power of community and kindness is.
From the first moments, the CampusKey Pretoria team acted swiftly. "It was great to arrive at the scene and see the CampusKey team and student mentors take charge, having student lists and ensuring all students are accounted for. That is vital information for us" - a First Responder on the scene.
The University of Pretoria and SRC made contact the same night to find out how they could assist and how we could collectively rise to this challenge. As the safety and wellbeing of our students are our number one priority, students were hosted at alternative hotel accommodation close to CampusKey. Our community team was on-site and available 24/7, ready to assist and support our students. Together with UP, we arranged a Mental Health event for any traumatised students to attend.
"Going through a traumatising experience can have a very negative effect on Mental Health. By offering this service, we are investing in the wellbeing of everyone in our community," said Lize Burns, community manager for CampusKey.
Construction teams were on site the next day to plan the rebuild of the affected rooms. Leon Howell, Managing Director, stated, "Our team and the wider student community have responded to the disruption with speed, creativity and ingenuity. It is great to see people reach out with so much kindness to support one another."
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