Saturday 15th September dawned a bright and sunny day, which was fitting for Nyanganites who were participating in the coastal cleanup day at Monwabisi beach near Khayelitsha.
IYWC was invited to take part in the coastal cleanup by Andreas Stoll of ERM and Nyanganites were up for the challenge. Armed with gloves and black bags, the learners walked along the beach, picking up litter and having a good time.
One Nyanganite, Lubabalo Dwabayo said, ‘I enjoyed doing the cleanup because we made the beach clean and got to swim in the ocean’.
Well done to Nyanganites for being environmentally conscious!
On Saturday the 8th of September, Nyanga held its termly parents’ meeting at Zolani Centre. The meeting was well attended, with 41 of our 69 learners represented by parents, guardians and other family members.
The meeting was three-fold, aiming at explaining, informing and understanding all matters pertaining to IY and the learners we work with. Many of our parents do not know what IY does and the meeting was a good platform for them to come, meet staff members and some of the volunteers and engage with them. The parents had many questions ranging from kick out policies, lateness policies and how to instill discipline in their children. There was also a lot of praise and acknowledgment of IY’s positive contribution in the lives of the learners.
One of the parents, Mrs Gwegwe said, ‘I thank IkamvaYouth for what they have done for my family. I never expected to see a computer in my home but my child was given a computer. Continue the good work Ikamva.’
Thank you to all our parents who attended and sent delegates on their behalf, and a huge thank you to Nyanganites for making this meeting a success.
On Tuesday 18 September , IY attended the UCT careers expo. The expo was aimed at showcasing NPOs in the Western Cape to UCT students. The whole day was a flurry of activity with students coming in, asking about IY and signing up to volunteer, interns, or get more information about the work we do.
Shuvai and Siya of the Nyanga branch explained IY’s work to the students and got many to sign up for our Gauteng, Western Cape and KZN branches. One student, Xolile Zondi had the following to say: ‘I’m from Umlazi but I didn’t know there was such a program in my community. I would like to get involved back home.’
It was a tiring but definitely worthwhile experience, as more young people are now aware of IkamvaYouth and the work we are doing to raise a nation!
Saturday the 15th of September will remain a memorable day in the history of the Nyanga branch as we held our first ever alumni meeting .
The purpose of the meeting was to launch the IkamvaYouth alumni program, aimed at connecting our alumni at tertiary institutions and finding ways of supporting them so as to ensure higher levels of throughput at university. The alumni program is being piloted at the Nyanga branch and will be rolled out to other branches and the rest of the country where IY has branches.
Mr Richard Wells facilitated the meeting, workshop-style with a group of alumni and current volunteers. The group shared personal experiences about learning to adjust to tertiary education, highlighting the need and importance of an IY alumni program. Melikhaya Tshitshiba of the class of 2008 noted that an alumni group would be invaluable to Ikamvanites in tertiary since there were still many hurdles to scale at university, once Ikamvanites made it there.
A very warm thank you to Mr Richard Wells, our alumni and volunteers who made the meeting possible.
A mentoring workshop was held at the Ebony Park branch during the weekend, fascilitated by Nomfuzo Ntolosi, a life coach, of The Coaching Centre, with experience in running mentorship workshops. Aspects covered by the the workshop include:
– career mentoring, the responsibilities of a mentor and mentee
– the mentoring approach, managing expectations, boundaries, relationship building, signing on and smooth dissolution
– looking after (self) the mentor
– communication with Ikamva Youth as well as identifying risks
There are already some Grade 12 learners who have been matched with a mentor. The mentor commits to two hours’ communication every month through various forms of communication networks. The first meeting is facilitated by the IkamvaYouth office, where the mentor will get to meet the mentee, and they will sign a mentorship agreement. Thereafter, the IkamvaYouth office must be informed of any meetings away from the office, to which the mentee’s parent or guardian must consent. Grade 12 learners were part of the participants and this workshop gave them insight on what mentorship is all about.
The current and potential mentors who attended were from African Bank, The Helen Suzman Foundation, MISTRA as well as the tutors from Ivory Park and Ebony Park branches. The turnout for the event was great, regardless of the rainy and chilly weather. The session was interactive which gave participants an opportunity to express their views as well as their experiences throughout the session.
The overall feedback was that it was an informative, very helpful session and was ideal to give a head start for mentoring young people in any given setting. A positive response was received from the evaluations done at the end of the workshop. Thank you to everyone that attended regardless of the weather conditions, your attendance made this workshop a success. The target is to have all grade 12 learners mentored, and thus we look forward to having more mentors coming on board. We are also looking forward to all the fruits that the mentoring will bear in ensuring the learners access tertiary opportunities, and are motivated to achieve in life.
Lloyd Lungu