IkamvaYouth is a township-based non-profit organisation (established in 2003 and formally registered in 2004) with branches in three provinces in South Africa currently operating from Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Masiphumelele in the Western Cape, Ivory Park in Gauteng, and Cato Crest in KwaZulu-Natal. While learners enrol at IkamvaYouth when they are in grades 9, 10 and 11, the programme's success is ultimately determined by the number of grade 12 learners who access tertiary institutions and/or employment-based learning opportunities when they matriculate. Currently fewer than 10% of South African youth access higher education (SAIRR, 2009) of which only a fraction come from township or rural communities.
The IkamvaYouth model is a township-based innovative volunteer-driven project achieving remarkable results through supplementary tutoring, career guidance and mentoring, e-literacy training, HIV education, life skills development and creative expressions programmes. The IkamvaYouth equips learners from disadvantaged communities with the skills and resources to access tertiary education and/or employment opportunities once they matriculate. Similarly to the Trust’s Winning Nation Programme, IkamvaYouth aims to increase the collective skill level of the population, to grow the national knowledge base, and to replicate success in more communities. Using the Western Cape branch as the measurement benchmark, IkamvaYouth's matric pass rate has been between 90 and 100% each year since 2005. More than 70% of the last two matric groups have gained access to tertiary education (compared to the township average of around 5%). IkamvaYouth expects the other branches to soon mirror these results and offers an effective and cost-effective solution to some of South Africa's key challenges.
The IkamvaYouth model draws from a large and growing pool of volunteers made up of students (from nearby universities) and local professionals. The organisation's sustainability is driven by of the pex-learners who gain entrance to tertiary institutions and return to tutor. More than half of the volunteers at the Khayelitsha and Nyanga branches are ex-learners and over 80% of the Khayelitsha management committee comprises ex-beneficiaries. IkamvaYouth thus provides the additional advantage of allowing ex-IkamvaYouth learners to be agents of change – from beneficiary to benefactor.
In 2010, IkamvaYouth will accommodate 420 learners from grades 9-12 across 5 branches at an effective cost of around R5000 per leaner for the core programme.