The Cheetah Sanctuary’s outreach program came to Makhaza’s Winter School on Wednesday, 29th June, to run a workshop on conservation of cheetahs’ habitats. On the following day the group was taken to the facilities of the Sanctuary, where they had the chance to play with adult cheetahs and study them from close proximity.
Anamhla from grade 10 said: “I really enjoyed the afternoon and I wasn’t even scared when I got the chance to play with an adult cheetah. I also learned a lot. Did you know cheetah was the fastest animal on Earth?
Special thanks to the Cheetah Sanctuary’s volunteers.
My name is Unathi and I am a tutor at the Makhaza branch of Ikamva and part of the winter school, I tutor many different subjects but especially accounting, business and economics. I’m currently studying at UWC.
Here is what my week has been like:
Tuesday:
My expectations from the two weeks period and how will it affect my future?
i expect students to bring questions, challenge the tutors on their different streams and make sure
they go home with a lot learned on that particular day.
I expect commitment from both management, tutors and well yes the students.
TUTORING- I spent time with a grade 12 learner tutoring one on one for economics, it ends productive.
Wednesday-
More tutoring, engagement with the students which are in my stream. the learners are challenging in terms of school work and in bringing questions for the next day.
WORKSHOPS- on the workshop I hear about stuff that I’ve never really knew, from the Jewish centre.
my experience- me well i knew little about the history of Germany and i never knew that the laws they had during Hitlers’ period of being president, some how were related with few laws the South African Apartheid Government made. GRATEFULL TO IKAMVA FOR THE WORKSHOP AND THE JEWISH CENTRE.
Thursday-
I’ve engaged with a learner who is doing his matric, I’ve noticed that we need a more time on his commercial studies i.e economics and business.
WORKSHOPS- in a group with the learners, we hear about LUCCA LEADERSHIP. The 1st hour of the session learners were not really engaging with the facilitators, but they got a break after that they were engaging- asking questions and answering when they are asked questions, after the workshop we get a chance to talk about what caused them not to engage, well they tell me they are too shy to speak english. We conclude that they need to practice their english all the time.
Now it’s Friday morning, tutoring is happening for all the grades in Maths, Science, History, Geography, Accounting, Business and Economics. The grade 11 science students have gone to UCT to participate in Science experiments, looking forward to the afternoon workshops!
There are many other streams and workshops happening which other tutors are involved in, you’ll get to hear about them from the others.
Unathi Smile x
The much-anticipated 2010 Annual Report is out!
A huge thanks to volunteers Lynne Stuart for the very beautiful design and layout, and to Julia de Kadt for proofreading.
The Report is a multi-media feast, with links to blog posts and youtube clips throughout. Take some time out to learn more about IkamvaYouth and the ikamvanites’ remarkable stories of 2010, share the links you like and enjoy!
We have been studying the poetry from ‘Through Our Eyes’ in English class. My Year 9 High school students in Australia spent a few weeks reading and reflecting on the insightful and inspiring poetry from IkamvaYouth. I, their teacher, spent a year in Cape Town in 2008 and volunteered with Ikamva as a tutor as well as taking part in all the other wonderful things that were being done. I was at the exhibition of the photos from the book and ran an interactive body percussion workshop at the launch. Some of you might remember the slogan we sang: Pictures are our stories of the world through our eyes.
As a result, it was so exciting when I started teaching in High school and realised that I could use this opportunity to spread the story of IkamvaYouth, a self sustaining, innovative organisation. At the same time, I could expose my students to some new themes and introduce them to some of the passionate people I had met, through their poetry.
We spent a few classes discussing HIV and AIDS, exchanging information that is essential for all young people. This tied in very well with Thobela’s poem ‘I want the meaning of Positive’ and it sparked much conversation about HIV as a personal and global issue and what life might be like if the word ‘Positive’ took on a new meaning from the one you’d been taught as a child. ‘Do you know your status’ was also another poem that struck my students. Life can be planned. We can strive for dreams, but all that could come to nothing if we don’t know our status. ‘I had never realised’ was another poem that we enjoyed, because it told about how perspectives change as a result of experiences. Often we don’t realise things until they stare us right in the face. This poem allowed us to question our lives and our assumptions, and begin to wonder how many things ‘we’ haven’t realised yet. It also led us to discuss what might be similar in the lives of teenagers in Khayelitsha and Australia, and what things might be different.
We also spent some time looking at the Photo Gallery on the IkamveYouth website, and that allowed us to spend an afternoon seeing Khayelitsha through your eyes as well as catching a glimpse of some of the poets in the photos. Here are my students’ reflections on some of the poetry. We’d like to thank all the poets and photographers for the snapshot of their lives, that allowed us to enter and learn from the experience. I’d also like to thank Joy for allowing us to share our reflections with you.
Eva Franklin
I was part of the history group so we were taken to the District 6 museum. We were told about District 6 and the different places formed for different people. I didn’t think I would be interested in history, but when we arrived at the museum, it was really interesting. We went around the museum and saw different things being displayed. We did an activity where we had to find things in the museum. There were great poems displayed on the floor of the memorial hall, and you had to choose one but I ended up choosing two because all those poems were good. We were sad because the fun had to end so we went back to TSIBA .
Snaza Dlakovu, Grade 8
The physics and chemistry group was very fun. At first I didn’t understand what we were going to do, because there were these funny machines that I had never seen before. The teacher, Nomfundo, told us that we were making an alarm. I was so confused and shocked because I had never made an alarm before. So many thoughts went through my head. I had never made an alarm before. I made the alarm and when I was confused or didn’t put the material in a right way the tutors were there to help us. When it was time to put the batteries in, everything was good, the sound and the lights were good. It made a good sound, and I was so proud. I wish to do something as exciting today.
Modelwa Ranisi, Grade 8
Yesterday I watched a movie called Human Planet on how people around the world stay alive. I learned how other people find or make their own food. The people shown get their food in the sea. What I loved about the movie, was that the people rely on one another just to feed their families. The whole village or island works together just to put food on the table. Another thing that I loved was that even though hunting for fish in the sea is very hard, people in those countries or islands never give up. They risk their own lives for their people. What I didn’t love was that people in those countries did very dangerous jobs and that is high risk, but I learned that giving up wont help you. You have to struggle to get or to achieve what you want. The movie inspired me a lot, and I wish I could go to sea and try to hunt fish.
Sinazo Maqolu, Grade 8
At the District Six Museum, we learned about the forced removal of people. It was cool. There was a man named Mr. Williams who was one of the people who were forced to move out of their own homes to other countries. We asked him how it felt, and he said it was very painful. Yesterday made me very serious about my future and very confident about it. I want to thank Ikamva Youth for the opportunity they gave me.
Sinazo Kula, Grade 8
Lloyd Lungu