Catholic Students’ Jubilee This Year
ACTS members at Mini World Youth Day in Durban. The tertiary students’ association is due to celebrate its 25th anniversary. (Photo: Rogerant Tshibangu)
The Association of Catholic Tertiary Students (ACTS) is set to celebrate its silver jubilee this year. The celebration is expected to take place in early July after the conclusion of the 25th annual national conference in Gauteng.
ACTS president Kabelo Segapo told The Southern Cross the association is excited about reaching this milestone.
“We can never be grateful enough to all those who have made this association what it is now because of their service, commitment and determination,” Mr Segapo said. “We invite all current members, non-members, associate members and alumni to be part of this big celebration.”
It’s Mission
ACTS was established in Johannesburg in 1993 after both the Catholic Students’ Association (CASA) and the National Catholic Federation of Students (NCFS) at historically black and white campuses respectively, were dissolved to form a united body.
Describing themselves as a student-driven faith community, ACTS is located within, and works closely with, the Catholic chaplaincies of the universities.
It has established branches at various universities, technikons and teacher training colleges around South Africa.
According to ACTS’ constitution, the association seeks to empower youth spirituality towards the development of the Church within the context of South Africa, and is driven by the principles of ecumenism, non-racialism and non-sexism.
Programmes and activities are intended to respond to “signs of the times”. These include holding rallies at campuses nationwide in support of the ABCD Lifestyle campaign — to raise awareness around HIV/Aids — and organising a “No Means No” march in 2013 to protest against gender and domestic violence.
ACTS also has an outreach programme in place that sees the association working with companies to generate funds towards community and social development.
Promoting Spiritual Growth
Mr Segapo said the goal is to continue developing these programmes to promote the spiritual growth of its members and to make a positive impact in the community.
“We speak of seeing growth in the year 2018,” he said. “The intention is to go back and find our roots as an association, implement the identity of the association through our branches, involve young people from all corners of the country, and continue to be witnesses to Christ’s love as we have done for the past 25 years.”
Alumni and associate members are encouraged to donate a minimum of R300 towards raising funds for ACTS’ silver jubilee celebration and the national conference. This initiative closes on May 31.
For information on banking details, visit the ACTS Facebook page.
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