On 22nd May 2010, IkamvaYouth in Makhaza hosted an HIV/AIDS awareness activity in which New Start and Youth AIDS offered their services to our learners and the community. Youth AIDS is an organisation targeting youth in and out of school in the age group between 16-24 years old. This time around they came to introduce themselves to the learners saying, “We are going to work with you fully and well-equipped during the Holiday Programme.” They are really enthusiastic to work with our learners.
On the other hand, New Start is an organisation that does voluntary counselling and testing while targeting all age groups. They arrived around half past ten in the morning and set up their apparatuses. While tutoring was in continuing, the voluntary counselling and the testing was rolling outside offering their services to the community members from around Makhaza and the tutors who were not engaged at the moment. After tutoring many of our learners joined the queue, and I must say it was amazing to see our learners brave enough to test in large numbers. This was a very successful day for HIV Awarness and testing for our learners. 
-Bopane Lephoto
Head of HIV/AIDS, Makhaza
On the road to Clan William, we were taught different types of mountains and how old they are. We were taught about rocks, how to make cement, and different factories along Malmesbury.
On our way to Clan William there were also rivers, and it was the geologist who taught us these things and the rivers’ names. There was always time for everything, and we went to a restaurant for lunch.
After we arrived at the place where we were staying, we just took a few minutes break and hit the road again. We went to a forest where San people lived a long time ago. Our tour guide showed us places where the San people wrote; they did not have pens and papers like us, so they wrote on rocks, even if they had experienced something new. We were taught about different kinds of paint they used.
We were taught different kinds of animals that lived in that particular area and where they have ended up today. We took pictures of that place. It was a two hour trip. We were all tired and we all wanted to take a lift down the mountain. When we were going up there, we did not want to take a lift because we had energy and we all wanted to experience our trip. After that we went back to our rooms tired, and some of us took a bath. At about seven o’clock, we had a full supper, drinks, and biscuits.
Then we went to our rooms to relax, and they brought us chips and sweets. After everyone relaxed, we went outside and played games. There were not only Ikamva learners, there were also UCT (University of Cape Town) students and a Geologist. They came up with new games we did not know, and we also gave them games they did not know. We had a lot of fun there.
In the morning after finishing everything, we went to a hotel for breakfast. Most of us did not want to go becasue we were still having fun. We had acknowledged a great experience. Even on our way back we did not come back the way we went, and we got to see other mountains and rivers.
Above picture: Lorna (second from left) holding a reptile’s skin with her peers.
Special Thanks to Dr. Carl Palmer and sponsors of the trip
After years of taking our attendance manually, our beloved Mr. Kota has created a database to scan our learners’ student badges and display their information and attendance every time they show up for homework and tutoring sessions. See video demonstration below.
As such, we only have this database running for our Makhaza branch. We are currently looking for a Web Developer who can help us to get this program online so that we can share this knowledge with our other branches across the country.
If interested, please contact Joy Olivier at joy(at)ikamvayouth.org
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IkamvaYouth is proud to announce the publication of our 2009 Annual Report.
As usual, it has been a fully-volunteered, collaborative endeavour, and we would like especially to thank the following special ikamvanites:
- Felix Seuffert for layout and design
- James Krolikowski for compiling all the information
- Marie Sutherland-Lawless for desigining the front page
There are many others (too many to mention), who helped with writing, editing and getting content, and we applaud each of you for your contributions!
IIkamvaYouth‘s sixth year was a big, busy one. We grew (expanded our team and our reach) and most importantly we once again, against all odds, achieved our mission: an 87% matric pass rate (54% Bachelor passes and 31% Diploma passes, required for access into tertiary study). Our learners far surpassed the national and provincial matric results; compared with those of the districts in which we operate, they are astounding. These results (together with mentoring and career guidance) enable our learners to matriculate from township schools, walk through the doors of higher education and realise their dreams.
It is wonderfully fulfilling to be delivering on our mission in a way that far exceeds any realistic expectations. There are Ikamvanites in fields including Biochemistry, Information Technology, Business Administration, Psychology, Engineering, Education, Nursing and Law. Some are traveling the world, others have enriching jobs, or even running their own small businesses. Many ex-learners are still spending every Saturday morning at Ikamva as volunteers. Anna Telford‘s documentary, IkamvaYouth Flying Colours (2009) captures some of these stories. Watch it now!
We were joined by some incredible new friends in 2009. The libraries, tertiary institutions, schools, organisations and companies we work with enable us to do what
we do, and in 2009 they helped us to be bigger, better and in new places. Read all about these exciting new developments in the branch directors‘ reports.
Sharing resources, expertise, and lessons learned is key for the success and replication of our model. Read about IkamvaYouth- in-a-Box and our plans for 2010 and beyond to find out about where we plan to go from here.
Reflecting back on last year gives us the much-needed space and time to sit back and appreciate what we‘ve achieved and how lucky we are to be working with such
inspiring and talented people. Ikamvanites rock! 🙂
I‘m inviting all readers of our 2009 Annual Report to join the learning revolution. Bring your time, talents, skills, cash or resources and invest in our future. Viva, ikamvanites, viva!
Joschka Thilo will be travelling by bicycle, from Zurich, Switzerland to Cape Town, South Africa. He will be travelling for about 6 months, covering 10,000km (6,200 miles). He will travel without a support vehicle which means he will be transporting all his equipment, food and water with him on his bicycle! He’s generously chosen IkamvaYouth to be the recipient of ALL the funds he’ll be raising through this trip (he isn’t even keeping any to cover his costs!). Josch writes on his site, NomadsOn2Wheels, that ” I hope to inspire the people following this journey to follow their dreams and escape from the everyday rat race. I strongly believe that there is more to life than the urban lifestyles largely based on materialistic and monetary values that so many people aspire to.”
Support his amazing courage (and IkamvaYouth!) by donating via PayPal on his website
.
Lloyd Lungu