Students out to educate consumers

IN GAUTENG, students at Monash University South Africa under the guidance of Dr Stephen Saunders, have volunteered to provide the most vulnerable members of the community with ideas and possible solutions for consumer-related issues.

Saunders said the Consumer Education Initiative offered a platform for students and the community to come together to provide each other with consumer-related information and support to create abetter understanding of consumer rights.

"As marketing scholars we know the poorest members of society are most vulnerable to exploitive marketing practices, and are also least likely to exercise their consumer rights," Saunders said.

One of the key tasks undertaken by the students was to collect and share consumer-related products and information that might be relevant to the public.

"The students managed to collect a huge amount of data and photographs of products and services used by the communities," said Saunders.

"The students found widespread evidence of fake healthcare products for sale in the community and this prompted a lively discussion and a search for literature on how illiterate consumers identify and interpretwritten information."

During the community workshops, participants also raised concerns about the prevalence of counterfeit toothpaste in the community so the students were able to share evidence and knowledge about counterfeit items and suggested ideas, and possible community-led solutions to the problem.

"The feedback I have received from the students and the community has been extremely positive," said Saunders.

"Hopefully, initiatives such as these can build inclusive and genuine community engagement and provide students with a valuable service-learningexperience."