SKYPE SESSION WITH BRAZILIAN YOUTH
World Cup Fever is of course global and there’s no country better acquainted with world cup soccer glory than Brazil which was just one of a number of topical conversations Ikamvanites had over Skype with CAJU, a Brazilian youth group keen to exchange life experiences and share in some world cup fever from across the Atlantic. Ikamvanites learnt that many of the social issues, dreams and ambitions of Brazilian youth are very similar to their own. As a special surprise, Ikamvaites also received Brazilian t-shirts from the Brazilian Embassy which went down a treat.
XENOPHOBIA—’WHERE DO I STAND?’
IkamvaYouth screened Molly Blank’s thought provoking documentary “Where do I stand?” on xenophobia which prompted much reflective and introspective thoughts from Ikamvanites. Be sure to log on to our website IkamvaYouth for some of the responses from our Cape Town learners.
HIV/AIDS AWARENESS—VOLUNTARY TESTING & COUNSELLING
Ikamvanites learnt that taking charge of their futures also means taking charge of their health and specifically, take charge of their status. The first step is to test and KNOW YOUR STATUS. During the winter school personnel from New Start presented on the confidentiality and voluntary testing procedure followed by presentations and disclosure from the members of the Philani Support Group based at Ivory Park. More than a third of our learners and volunteers went and tested. The turnout exceeded our expectations and as a result New Start will be invited again later this year.
YOUTH DAY 2010
Ikamvanites marked Youth Day with a time of reflection by lighting candles for the victims of the past and the present. Ikamvanite Joe Manciya led the group through a multimedia commemoration of the events of Soweto in 1976 and brought these to our present consciousness as Ikamvanites asked themselves what we can do to shape our world.
IKAMVAYOUTH GAUTENG
WINTER SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAMME REPORT
14-25 JUNE 2010
IkamvaYouth Gauteng once again hosted a very successful winter school holiday programme thanks to the generosity of our supporters and the tireless efforts of an awesome group of volunteers and a highly dedicated group of IkamvaYouth learners.
SUPPLMENTARY TUTORING
The key component of IkamvaYouth’s winter school is the academic support and learners had three sessions of tutoring every day lasting between an hour and an hour-and-a-half per session. A variety of tutoring resources were used including work the learners brought with them, past papers, mock exams and study guides. Regular ‘English Fundamentals’ sessions were held with additional sessions focused on exam preparation. Maths remains the subject for which learners request the most assistance.
WORKSHOPS
Gareth Coatz from the South African Aids Trust ran a workshop with the learners on harassment. He got Ikamvanites buzzing with opinions and energy on the matter, especially on the different experiences of girls and boys. Some useful conclusions were drawn about some strategies for dealing with harassment not least of which a commitment from the learners to speak honesty and respectfully to each other on issues of gender and the different experiences. In addition to these workshops, a number of sessions were helpd on the topics of leadership as followership. ’Who is the thief?’ Respect, and Resolve hosted a Conflict Management session.
HIV/AIDS
By Luyanda Kota
Before the winter school, we kind of adopted a slogan that says “if you don’t know your status, then you don’t know your future”. This is indeed correct in every sense of the work and we are happy that we addressed the need for more HIV/AIDS awareness stuff at the Winter School by inviting and number of organisations to help our learners out.
YouthAids was the first organisation to come and they had a great approach of creating awareness in a fun way with music and learners dancing. They gave a lot of gifts to our learners as they were asking them about a number of pertinent issues to create that Peer to Peer learning. We also had the favourates Partners in Sexual Health (PSH) and once again learners liked the workshop as it was more of a debating approach. Last but by no means last OIL came to and approached the awareness in a form of activities and games.
At the end of the Winter School New Start came to Nazeema Isaacs Library but due to the bad weather they tested few of our learners. We are hoping that we will continue to fly the flag of creating awareness and once again we want to say “if you don’t know your status, then you don’t know your future”
Kirstenbosch Excursion
by Nkosinathi Baartman
IKAMVA YOUTH managed to send 72 learners and five tutors to attend a workshop at Kisternbosch. Ikamvanites arrived at 10am at Kisternbosch and were welcomed by teachers who were going to help them for the day. Grade 10s did biomes programme and Grade 11s did programme comparing mosses, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms while Grade 9s did programmes on wetlands and focusing on evolution.
Learners were very impressed about this opportunity and now they have a lot of information such as different types of plants and trees. The interesting part about that session was to know what is needed for having all the things around us as the human beings. Also the learners were showing an interest because they were challenged by teachers asking them questions about what they have taught them.
Learners showed respect and behaved very well and as a result Kirstenbosch has opened an invitation for IkamvaYouth to visit them next year. Tutor Ikamvanites were very involved while engaging with Kirstenbosch teachers and they also had fun while they can’t forget the beautiful Kisternbosh.
Iziko Annexe Trip
By Christopher Fan
The learners from IkamvaYouth Makhaza had the opportunity to attend a Drawing Workshop at the Iziko Annexe. Students had the opportunity to view and appreciate works of art created by fellow peers and learners their own age from different schools around the Western Cape. At the Annexe, basic drawing workshops are provided to all learners ever last Monday of the month. Our learners from Makhaza learned how to create works of art with basic materials. Using cardboard, paper, paint, and cardboard tubing, our learners were taught and assisted on making African trees such as the gum tree, baobab tree, and Italian Iron Pine, and many more. Tutors, Annexe Workers, and the learners had a wonderful time working together and using creativity to produce their own works of art.
Lloyd Lungu