Following the devastating fire in Masiphumelele on 2 May which destroyed over 1000 homes, ikamvanites have been juggling their schoolwork and IkamvaYouth tutoring and winter schools with having to rebuild their homes and recover after losing all their posessions.
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Thankfully, the Masi branch has garnered support from many numerous donors, including Foschini, Masi Corp and a number of individuals (including Alex, Andy Sudermann, Philipp Schmidt, Charlotte and Tim Sun). The positive effect of these investments enabled the ikamvanites to replace their stationery, schoolbooks and uniforms, and build and better insulate their homes.
The improvements have allowed homes to be functional again and a certain amount of normality is returning to these learners lives. The first stage of this project has ensured that each learner has adequate shelter in which to live and to study.
The ikamvanites and their families send out the following thanks:
“Hi all, I just want to thank you for helping me. Often I’ve been told not to get my hopes up but now I know that I can get them up because there are people like you. You’ve shown me that I can hope to someone. Guys I don’t know what to say really because you’ve done a lot for me and my family, so all I can say is ‘Thanks’ and I appreciate everything because we could not have rebuilt my room without your help. I just so wish that I can see and than you face to face or to be able to give back to you one day!” Sandiswa Bani
“I write this letters just to show appreciation. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. What you did for me and others was a good thing and by writing this letter I am showing my never fading gratitude. I now have a safe and warm home because of you. Thank you so much. They say a hand that gives is blessed. The same kindness will be shown to you.” Zintle Nyaniso (Grade 10 Ikamvanite)
I Aphiwe from IkamvaYouth just wanted to show my appreciation a big big thank you for what you guys have done for me. You give me everything I needed and I am so happy for these things that you give me. Really really thank you you guys inspired me to make a lot easier for me. Don’t give up with what you are doing. Keep on doing it. You will make a difference to South Africa. It will take long, but don’t get tired we need you.
My name is Khanya Gutyana. I would like to thank you for everything you have done for me for all of us Ikamvanites affected by the fire. You helped us a lot. Some of us didn’t know where to start. Even our parents didn’t know how to begin rebuilding our lives. But you helped us. Thank you so much guys, we appreciate everything you have done for us.
Hi. I write this letter to say thank you very much. You have helped us so much. I always say to bless a person that helps others. You have shown care, love in what you have done for Ikamvanites in Masiphumelele. It makes me realise that there are people who care and people who make me feel special. Sihle Nini (Grade 10 Ikamvanite)
I am writing this letter to say thank you for the money that you gave to us. It will help us a lot and also we appreciate the work that you are doing for us because it means a lot and shows me that people care. Avile Mabengu (Grade 11)
Mothers of the Nation.
While men go to work, they stay home with five children and seven month’s pregnant, they move up and down the whole day looking after the children and the whole house because their love is splendid, courageous and unconditional.
They carry a human being in their bodies for 9 months. They bring pure love and happiness to each and every moving skeleton they see in the street.
These are the mothers of the nation, women who care for the nation; their intention in this world is to bring joy, peace, happiness and inspiration. They are the ones who change the world, they give birth to doctors, engineers and presidents but their abilities were never recognised.
They are like candles in a room with lights, and those candles were never allowed to shine because the light’s brightness was strong. They were put under a shadow of darkness where no light could shine, but today they are the best seas in all oceans, they are the stars that shine in the sky. They walk with pride and dignity pulling their shoulders up and saying “I am in control.” These are the mothers of the nation, women who care about the nation.
Their big hearts are being celebrated all over the world. Women who care for the nation like the late Mama Albertina Sisulu, women who fought for the nation, women like Oprah Winfrey, women who care for the nation. Those are the mothers of the nation; those are the stars that shine in the night.
The world is so blessed to have my mother, your mother, your granny, my aunty because those are the mothers of the nation, women who care for the nation.
– Dieketso Boshego (Grade 11). IkamvaYouth Ivory Park.
In January I started coughing, losing weight, sweating and I got sick until I was very weak. When I went to the clinic, the worse news I got, came as a shock to me that I was diagnosed with TB. I was immediately started on treatment.
I visited the clinic again to get the final results after six months, the male nurse who was responsible for my file, was not there, because he was on a training course, but ultimately on the 27th of July 2011 I found him, and the best news I ever got was that, “My boy you are discharged from TB treatment, your results are clear” he said. The nurse, who received me for the first time in that clinic, told the other man who was just diagnosed with TB to look at this boy, he is such a good example, he has just completed his treatment and is cured of TB.
Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mta8uxSIN78
I would like to thank all the people who were supportive during my time of shock and disbelief. I would like to encourage those who are afraid of testing for TB when they are coughing to do so and adhere to TB treatment because if I can beat it, you can also beat it.
Emmanuel – IkamvaYouth Ivory Park. Grade 10.
I am currently about to start my third year at Amherst College a small liberal arts college in Western Massachusetts in the United States as a Black Studies and Women and Gender Studies double major and German as my language focus. This is a completely different path to the original plan I had in high school, which was to study accounting and eventually become a Chartered Accountant. I was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship from the Student Sponsorship Programme (SSP) in high school and SSP played a large role in my being where I am today not only for financial reasons but through help with University applications, career guidance and personal support. SSP also influenced my interest in working with the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) at Amherst College because even though I have a busy schedule as a fulltime student, I think it is important to help out where you can. Once I week I tutor at A Better Chance (ABC) a national programme that takes young boys from disadvantaged backgrounds and puts them in some of the best high schools in America. Every summer, the CCE and other departments at Amherst provide a stipend for students to go to any country in the world and intern with any community-based organization. I wanted to do something in South Africa so that I could be home and still do something productive during my school vacation and more especially work with an organisation with a focus on education and/or youth development. Thankfully we live in a technological age so I just googled the type of organisations I was interested in working with, found IkamvaYouth Gauteng within the Siyakhula Education Foundation, emailed them stating my interest in working with them and the rest is history.
I have to say, for the name SEF has made for itself, the organization is quite small. I expected the Siyakula and IkamvaYouth staff to be more than twenty people but they do not even reach ten. I was really nervous the first day I arrived but I think due to the size of the people working at SEF there is a certain bond shared and I felt comfortable in no time. One of the first chats I had with Andrew Barrett, he told me that with Education in South Africa, however bad you think it is, it is actually much worse. One of the most powerful things he told me though is the fact that 80% of South African schools are basically write-offs and it would make no difference whether they were open or closed. That struck me very much because even though I was raised by my mother as a single parent who was also the only one out of her five siblings with a stable job, I managed to go to one of the best schools in East London, Clarendon High School for girls and passed matric with four distinctions. Sometimes you become very closed off to other environments and don’t realise the extent of the inequalities that exist out there. A country like South Africa that is only in its 17th year of democracy is a great place to study the gender and racial inequalities that exist because seventeen years in not enough time for the results of the restitution policies implemented to be visible.
I attended the IkamvaYouth Careers Indaba today, June 25, 2011 and met the IkamvaYouth students for the first time. I am extremely excited to be working with all of them for the next few weeks and making a difference, however small in their lives
IkamvaYouth and EwB joined hands to build future Mathematicians. Knowing that pass rates are low in mathematics at grade 12, a closer look has been taken to understand why learners perform so badly in maths. One of the major points that came up is the foundation of mathematics; maths is like ladder: you can’t jump one step and expect not to fall. Without understanding grade 8-level maths it makes it difficult to fully grasp grade 9 maths and the chain continues to grade 12. For example, with some learners, it’s not that they don’t understand the trigonometry, but it’s the fraction within the trigonometry with which they’re struggling and leads them to get the math wrong. Yes We Can Maths provides the platform to understanding these basics through the yellow and green books at grade 8 level; they start at the basic core of mathematics Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division. From there the books provide opportunities for learners to practice applying all of those skills to complex maths like fractions, exponents, etc.
This being basic mathematics, most learners they don’t think they need it due to the use of calculators. However, once one starts to challenge learners about how much they are depending on calculators, they realise that they don’t even know the methods of solving simple multiplication. Through this project we are tearing down a fundamental problem of mathematics education in South Africa.
Some highlights and challenges from the learners’ perspective, we asked couple of questions: How do they feel about the books? Is there anything would like to change about the class or tutor? And do you think the books are helping in your school work?
“To me the books are not easy at the same time not it’s not difficult, because some of activities are easy but some of them it’s hard to understand so I am in between.”
“There is nothing I want to change about the class it’s alright and my tutor Nicholas does a perfect job.”
“It was helping on term 1 but now it does not, because now we are doing equations in school and that book it’s no fractions so it’s not helping much. I would like the book to change to book 2 to have equation solving for x, expression and exponents”
“I feel very excited when I see the books, it’s because it helps me very much. It’s easy to understand all the equations in the book.”
It has been wonderful having these grade 8 learners join IkamvaYouth. In addition to the EWB project they have also been exposed to English tutoring and the full range of holiday programme activities.
Thank you to EWB for enabling us to work with these learners.
Lloyd Lungu