Thobela entered the IkamvaYouth programme in 2004 at the Makhaza branch in Khayelitsha. Here is a summary of his achievements:
- Completed matric with merit exemption.
- Graduated with his BSc degree in 2008, and is now currently pursuing an Honours degree at the University of Cape Town.
- Was on the Dean's merit list at the University of Cape Town in 2006 and 2007.
- Awarded the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship in 2009/10 which afforded him the opportunity to attended Summer School at William's College in the United States.
- Continued to be involved with IkamvaYouth and has made many meaningful contributions in his tutoring efforts as well as through his participation on the Makhaza management committee.
- Awarded an internship with GlaxoSmithKline in the UK.
Thobela shared his story for our 2009 Annual Report, this is what he had to say ---
I started attending at IkamvaYouth in 2004 when I was in Grade 11— ever since I have been part of the Ikamva family. I joined because I needed help with my subjects and I wanted to improve my marks so that I could be eligible to access tertiary studies. In total I spent two years as a learner (Grade 11 and 12) before matriculating into the University of Cape Town and returning to Ikamva as a tutor. In my community back then there weren’t many tutoring organisations. The only one I knew of, you had to pay a tuition fee and, because it was far from my house, I would have to use public transport to get there. There were three of us doing the same grade in my family— me, my sister and my brother— so it was not possible for them to finance extra tutoring for all three of us. When I heard from a friend that Ikamva provides free tutoring sessions on Saturdays, and in a library that is a ten-minute walk from my house, I felt compelled to jump right in. I believe that my experience as a learner is similar to that of the vast majority of my peers, mainly from the class that graduated from high school in 2005. Ikamva was the safest environment I have ever had in my life-- neither my family nor friends or school gave me that feeling of safety. Therefore, it is Ikamva Youth that has liberated many dreams that would have been otherwise suppressed and never seen the light. I am a conservative introvert and I have a lot of stuff to say, but most of the time I just keep quiet. At Ikamva, however, I managed to share some of the depths of my heart through my poetry. This, of course, was because of how safe I felt my space within the organisation to be. The way learners interact with each other and with tutors was just amazing. The relationships we had with our tutors transcended the concept of race that is still a raging issue in our country and many parts of the world. To me this was phenomenal and life-time friendships were created.
After my Matric, my friends and I asked one of the volunteers who helped us beyond the tutoring sessions if we could do anything for her to show our appreciation. She answered and said, “...if you could come back and give back to your community and volunteer at IY you would have given me the best gift.” We all agreed to volunteer at IY and tutor those who were behind us. So it all started as me trying to keep my promise to her, before I knew it I was swallowed and couldn’t imagine myself without IY. The need to make a change in public school’s education, a change that will definitely not come from our government kept me going to IY almost every Saturday. In my life I have done many things and none ever came close in fulfilling my heart more than tutoring or rather let me say teaching. Teaching is powerful, to be the one that conducts knowledge and learning to others is amazing and IY has made me to do just that. IY has inspired an academic career within me especially in higher education where there’s a shortage of people of colour.
In the past four years that I’ve been tutoring at IY I have been outside the country three times. Firstly, I went to Singapore with IY team to raise funds for the organisation. Secondly, I went to the United States of America (USA). To go in US I was awarded a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF). In US I was doing a research on two topics in organic chemistry. Lastly I went to the United Kingdom (UK). This was through an internship I got with GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company. I like to believe that all that is happening in my life has an influence from IY. I say this because for me the turning point in my life was when I joined IY in 2004. I thank God for IY. IY has thought me to be a man of character and integrity. Not only that but to be an agent of change and “be the change I want see in life”, Ghandi.