On World Aids Day, December 1, 2011, the Cape Town Information Resource Center invited Ikamvanites to a trans-Atlantic Skype dialogue session to create awareness of HIV/Aids related issues with American teen journalists from Boston University.
The catalyst before the Skype session was the screening of Susan Walker’s film entitled “A Tale of Two Teens” (2005). Walker is Boston University’s Professor of Journalism and a documentary film producer. The documentary follows Margaret, an American teenager, as she travels to South Africa to meet Sine, a 16-year-old girl orphaned when both her parents died of AIDS. Sine lives with her grandfather in the Pholela district, Kwazulu-natal, South Africa, the unofficial epicenter of the pandemic. Through the girls’ friendship (they bond over the music of American Dave Matthews, who was born in South Africa), the film explores how AIDS has been able to ravage an entire continent, while a dangerous complacency has developed in America. It looks at the disparities in the girls’ lives, from access to education and health care to their thoughts on boys, sex, and HIV/AIDS.
Infused with a resilient spirit, A Tale of Two Teens offered an accessible and meaningful appreciation of the global AIDS crisis as well as a powerful tool for discussion, awareness and prevention to kick start the dialogue session.
Guest facilitator, Garrett Rhodes, a major in Film from Penn State University and currently a Peace Corps Response Volunteer working with PEPFAR based at the Western Cape Dept. of Health in Cape Town, excelled at engaging both trans-Atlantic teen audiences in the Q&A sessions with his experience as a Life Orientation Coach and HIV/Aids Peer Group Educator.
Phumza Kibi, explained to the American teens that Ikamva Lisezandleni Zethu means “The Future is in our Hands” in Xhosa and the IkamvaYouth non-profit organisation focuses on the empowerment of youth through education, e-literacy training and career guidance.
After the program, Professor Susan Walker wrote about this initiative: “We are all just amazed at what we can do with the new technology and efforts of dedicated educators. Students were blown away by this experience and I would love to consider this, again, maybe next year during World AIDS Day.”
Results:
By highlighting World Aids Day and in support of the U.S. Mission to South Africa goals in partnering with the South African Government, this IRC program focused on HIV/Aids Education and awareness is moving forward towards an Aids-Free generation of South Africans. The dialogue session was a fun and creative way to carry the message home and to foster mutual understanding among global youth audiences.
Text is taken from Susan Dymond’s report of the event.
To view the Youtube clip of the conversation click here
Take yourself back to high school, back to a time when you did the barest minimum to get through school, a time when you’d rather be outside running around than buried in your school book after school. Some of the grade 11 learners are bucking this trend, and not only are they committed learners at IkamvaYouth (all with 100% attendance) but they also participate in IkamaYouth’s first official Book Club.
While the Book Club is still in it’s infancy they have already all read ‘One Day’ by David Nicholls. They have also tackled all the books in the ‘Twilight’ series, a popular teenage series. As a reward they were all treated to the opening of the ‘Breaking Dawn’ movie (one of the novels in the series).
Lungile Madela had this to say, “Twilight to me is an amazing story, set apart from the world, filled with wonderful characters and a fantastic plot. I’ve had the pleasure of reading all the books thanks to IkamvaYouth, it was an amazing experience for me. The books are very compelling and incredibly hard to put down, once you’ve started you cannot stop. The idea of bringing the books to life on our screens was a magnificent one.
The movies are as great as the books, the characters are exceptionally cast and so alike to the ones’ on the books it’s surreal to picture them elsewhere. In the fourth book of the series, Stephenie Meyer has truly outdone herself. She’s created a riveting climax to the story and has us at the edge of our seats. Breaking Dawn Part 1 was a delight for Twilight fans everywhere.
I can’t wait for part 2!!!! Fingers’ crossed for part 3..
If you have any books you’d like to donate or have any contacts to run literary workshops with our learners please contact:
Liesel Bakker – Makhaza Branch Coordinator
Tel: 079 633 8155
Email: liesel@ikamvayouth.org
Makhaza Prize giving
Prize giving event is conducted at the end of the academic year as a celebration of the successes of learners, volunteers and staff. It’s great to celebrate the end of the stressful exam period and the imminent summer holidays, so we give it all we’ve got. Makhaza branch had prize giving on the 26/ 11/2011. Due to the larger number of dedicated learners and tutors Makhaza branch issued out 112 certificates. 3 of most dedicated, good marks, leadership role, and best attendance learners were given a computer each. Other prizes that Makhaza learners got were Freshly-ground tickets. 15 of Makhaza branch learners will get the opportunity to watch freshly-ground performing live. The lovely Makhaza choir and hip-hopsters ensured we had good music. Tembela, one of the grade 12s who got 4 certificates plus a computer, couldn’t hide the joy and happiness during the ceremony. Thanks to Patrick for a great motivational speech which inspired most of the learners and tutors, also thanks to Joy for a great speech and background about the organisation.
One of the key things when you’re working with dedicated people is to show them the appreciation of their amazing work. It is indeed a pleasure to recognize and thank all of our tutors for the great year and amazing work they done for Makhaza learners this year. Makhaza branch tutors had their funny party at cool runnings in Tygervalley. Cool runnings is the most popular adventure sport. Ride the 1, 25 kilometre of twisting steel half-pipe and reach up to 40 km per hour. In this driving you control the speed with a hand brake, so you can go as fast or slow as you like. For most of the tutors, it was their first time for this kind of the trip. Then after the ridings tutors had lunch and chatted in the park near Tygervalley.
!!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!
Lloyd Lungu