Minister of Basic Education visits Ivory Park Strategic Planning Weekend

Minister of Basic Education visits Ivory Park Strategic Planning Weekend

 

The Minister of Basic Education Ms Angie Motshekga visited our Strategic Planning Weekend and sat in on one our group discussion sessions.

Ms Motshekga praised all the IkamvaYouth volunteers around the country who give back so selflessly to the community and who carry the desire to improve the circumstances of our IkamvaYouth learners. In light of the recently launched Bill of Responsibilities, Ms Motshekga said she is greatly encouraged by organisations like IkamvaYouth who are making a real and valuable contribution to our society.

Ms Motshekga left “impressed” and “inspired” and promised to continue the conversation. We now look forward to the future with greater confidence and the promise of greater coollaboration.

 

More photos available www.facebook.com/IkamvaYouthGauteng. 

Ivory Park’s Strategic Planning Weekend Report

Ivory Park’s Strategic Planning Weekend Report

The Ivory Park branch of IkamvaYouth held our very first (inaugural) Strategic Planning Weekend (SPW) recently with a view to getting to know each other better and planning the rest of the year ahead. The weekend was an excellent opportunity for volunteers, tutors and learner representatives to explore a little deeper what it means to be an Ikamvanite and how to make sure that the values we say we represent spill over into our actions.

Download the full report here.

For many the weekend was an excellent opportunity to dig deeper into the IkamvaYouth goals and the core mission to use the opportunuties created by education to help township school learners help themselves and others out of poverty. The co-founder of IkamvaYouth, Joy Olivier, came up from Cape Town to lead a number of the workshops around how we make sure we maintain the low cost high impact model of IkamvaYouth.

The two biggest highlights of the weekend included the election of the Ivory Park Branch Committee for 2011 and this was capped off with a visit from the Minister of Basic Education Ms. Angie Motshekga.

More photos of the weekend are up on our facebook page, you can visit www.facebook.com/IkamvaYouthGauteng.

Please do LIKE us on our facebook page if you haven’t done so already.

Testing Day

Testing Day

On the 13 March 2011 the Ikamva Youth Nyanga Branch hosted its first tesing day for 2011

Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation partnered up with the Nyanga Branch in educating the learners about the importance of knowing your staus and being healthy, a talk was given by Sister Liz of the Tutu testers about the importance of preventing ones self from the HIV virus and why it is imporatnt that learners should test and know their staus early as possible

One of  Ikamva Youth’s goal is to assist learners to lead healthy and responsible lives through knowing their status early and taking the necessary procautions when they know

The Tutu testers came with their mobile testing unit and openned up time during the Saturday tutoring session for a group of 6 leaners at a time, to go and test while learners and tutors continued with the normal tutoring for the day

The learners were encouraged to test but also told that testing is ones choice and no one will be forced to test if they dont want to, as Sis Liz mentioned the testing is “voluntary”

Our next tesing day will be held after our Winter School in July!

 

Waiting for their results after the health screening, TB, BMI, and HIV!

Now we know our status, Do You know yours?

BMI testing!!

Social Entrepreneurs – Are the Leaders We’ve Been Waiting for…

Social Entrepreneurs – Are the Leaders We’ve Been Waiting for…

“Social entrepreneurship is an evolving space, and yet one of the most profound developments in our world today. Simply put, social entrepreneurship is about correcting an accepted social imbalance for some economic gain. I can just hear the last part of my statement still buzzing around your heads: “for some economic gain?” to which I say absolutely “for economic gain”.

Put differently, social entrepreneurship is merely shifting resources out of an area of lower productivity to higher productivity to yield greater social benefit, where the nature of the profit, be it financial or otherwise, accrues to beneficiaries typically previously excluded from the profits and benefits. This creates a more equitable equilibrium, which is dependent on there being economic benefits for the sustainability of this entrepreneurial activity.

We, Social Entrepreneurship Certificate Programme (SECP) students, couldn’t have undertaken this programme at a more relevant time. The current unrest in North Africa points, among other things, to this very imbalance which social entrepreneurs seek to address. This can also be seen right here at home with the service delivery protests that are occurring more regularly. And as people involved in the development space, it forces us to think beyond the immediate scope of our work to the wider needs within our society. One is forced to ask the question: How effectively does my work address the socially acceptable imbalances in our society today?

The unrest in North Africa also demands that business at large start to ask the same question because when the imbalances reach a tipping point and ordinary citizens’ patience wears thin it is not only the development practitioners who will be affected, all of us, all of society will be affected. Thus we need to start having conversations now and we need to begin to find solutions today. But we can’t all be social entrepreneurs.

However, business can assist social entrepreneurs to begin to devise and bring to life innovative solutions, and to roll out solutions to these problems – this is an equally important role that business can take in an attempt to create social equilibrium within society.

Credit must be given to South African business for their increased spend and focus on social responsibility, but this needs to be taken further. Social entrepreneurs bring forth sustainable solutions that often have a measurable impact and are scalable in nature, and hence have far reaching effects. As a result, investments into social entrepreneurship have a far wider reaching impact than mere corporate social investment (CSI) spend. This is by no means to discredit current CSI disbursements where there remains a need. But this forces business to start thinking more about how their money, their investment, can have greater social impact.

Social entrepreneurs are by the very nature, change agents. The SECP enabled us to better understand this role, and to become more effective and efficient in the manner of change we bring about. One of the most important lessons learnt, as budding social entrepreneurs and development practitioners, is what Jim Collins, author of the book, Good to Great, refers to as ‘Level 5 Leadership’, which is two things. Firstly, the humility to know and understand that the change we wish to bring about is bigger than our ego, and thus the mission is bigger than ourselves, in other words, that we are building a legacy which will outlive us and outgrow us while attracting the right calibre of person to take the mission to a higher level. Secondly, insight, or lessons learnt, is about having the professional will to never lose sight of the goal and mission of our work, especially when the going gets tough, which it often does, and seemingly easy solutions present themselves which would benefit the individual rather than the organisation and the mission at hand.

I dare say, this is the type of leadership required of South Africa if the innate potential of our country is to bring forth the fruits of democracy that are so desperately needed and longed for by each and every South African citizen.

On behalf of the SECP class of 2010, I extend a heartfelt thanks to the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), and especially our course convener, Amy Tekie, coordinator, Dineo Lengane, and the team of lecturers. GIBS has enabled us to not only become more effective and efficient at what we do as development practitioners and budding social entrepreneurs, but through this course we have been given a platform to grow and to confidently add our voice to the conversations on where our country needs to get to and how that can happen.

We are the leaders that South Africa needs, the SECP class of 2010 knows that a heavy duty falls upon us now to fulfill the promises enshrined in the constitution for every South African to enjoy and I quote directly from the South African Constitution:

  • Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; 
  • Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law; 
  • Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and 
  • Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.

In closing I would like to share a quote from an unknown author, “Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical and expecting more than others think is possible.”

– This is an extract of the closing address made by Gqibelo Dandala, one of the 30 students to graduate in the Social Entrepreneurship Certificate Programme (SECP) at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria. The graduation ceremony was held on 9 March 2011. Gqibelo Dandala is founder and CEO of the Future of the African Daughter Project. Article submitted by Ann Bown, SECP lecturer.

IYKZN Computer Lab

IYKZN Computer Lab

It is a time of triumph for IYKZN. AME Africa health care technologies has donated a fully equipped computer lab to IYKZN. Situated in Chesterville at the Vuyani Nkosi Memorial Youth Center.

The actual lab consists of 20 thin client personal computers, a telephone, a printer and a digital projector.

This is a huge step for IYKZN. We can now conduct proper Operation Fikelela lessons, not just to our lovely learners but also to the community. The youth center also consists of a gym, an art theatre and a counsilling facility. We are set to move in to the youth center on the 1st of April. The whole team was there to view our new IYKZN branch and needless to say we were very excited at the very site of our new lab.The actual center is fully buglar guarded and has 24hr security.

 

We are very delited to partner with eThekwini Municipality Great Cator Manor Area based management in this great venture. It is quite an exciting opportinity to be able to assist the youth and community as a whole in a way that will benefit them for the future to come. We are really looking forward to the opportunity.

In closing we would like extend great thanks to the Greater Cator Manor Area Based Management office and AME on this venture.

IkamvaYouthKZN : LIFT AS YOU RISE

Lloyd Lungu

031 909 3590
lloyd@ikamvayouth.org
2525 Ngcede Grove, Umlazi AA Library, 4031

Lloyd is a self-disciplined and highly goal-driven Industrial Psychology Honours graduate. He is currently a Master's candidate completing his second year of M.Com in Industrial Psychology at the University of the Free State. Lloyd joined IkamvaYouth as a learner in 2012, after matriculating he came back and volunteered as a tutor for the duration of his undergraduate studies at UKZN. He later worked as an Intern in the Chesterville branch. His passion for youth empowerment and inclusion has grown enormously through his time and experience gained within IkamvaYouth and has inspired him to provide career guidance to young township people. He is currently working at the Umlazi Branch as a Branch Assistant.