Zanele Mashele, one of the grade 12 learners at IkamvaYouth Makhaza branch, was selected out of 3 other learners, who were previously interviewed, to be the recipient of the Varsity College Bursary. She was invited to attend the awarding event on Wednesday the 15th of October 2014. Being accompanied by her mother and the Makhaza Branch Coordinator, Zukile Keswa. The event kicked off at 10:00 am and among the guests at the event was MISS SA 2014, Rolene Strauss, who awarded Zanele Mashele the bursary. The bursary was said to cover the tuition fees, books and all study material for the entire duration of her undergraduate degree.
Reflecting on this whole event, Zanele said, “I never believed that opportunities like these are given to ordinary township girls like me. I never thought that such an opportunity exists for me. To all young people who would like to further their studies I would say, if you do not have the means to further your studies, there are many opportunities out there and you should try and find out about the opportunities. Money and circumstances should not stop you from having dreams and reaching for them. Stay positive and keep believing in yourself, know that you too can achieve great things.”
Zanele’s mother was filled with unspeakable joy when she saw her daughter receiving the bursary, it was indeed a milestone in this young lady’s life. The young lady’s dreams have now materialized, she will be doing her BCom in Financial Management at Varsity College in 2015.
We congratulate Zanele Mashele on receiving this bursary.
Zanele was also mentioned on Miss SA 2014’s facebook page.
![Makhaza learners attend ReThink Leadership Un[convention]al](https://www.wordpress.ikamvayouth.org/wp-content/uploads/migrated/imagecache/scale_480/10269384_10152290885146901_89011521188412849_n_0.jpg)
On the early morning of Saturday, 11th October 2014, 40 grade 8 & 9 learners departed from Makhaza to attend the annual ReThink Leadership Un[convetion]al workshop. The IY masterminds arrived at District 6 Museum at 08:00 am.
They were welcomed with a healthy and delicious breakfast before their fun filled day kicked off. The registration period was from 08:30 – 09:00 am after which the workshop started with some ceative activities and introduction.
The purpose of the Un[convention]al workshop was to engage high school learners from different backgrounds to share ideas on how to tackle issues that face their communities.
The young and dynamic minds were energized to think out of the box to bring forth unparalleled suggestions as courses of action.
One of the grade 9 learners, Tania Siswana said, “I learnt a lot of interesting things at the ReThink Leadership Un[convention]al. I learnt how to make a chair out of tyres and how to make a lot of other things from material that you would not think of. I understood how travelling the world could be beneficial to me . It was great, it was fun, it was exciting, it was inspirational and yet educating. I will never forget what they taught us about the 3 C’s which are be CURIOUS, be COURAGEOUS and to COMMUNICATE.”
The young minds were really inspired to be involved in constructive dialogue and meeting youth that they would not normally engage in conversations with.
A huge thank you to the Rethink Leadership team for such an amazing day and inviting the Ikamvanites.
Finding a proper venue for the Ivory Park branch with an office, computer lab and tutoring space has been a greater challenge for the past 2 years. For the past 9 months tutoring has been happening at a local stadium, with learners crowded in a single room where they could not access learning materials research, printing and photocopying facilities.
Securing a proper venue in a township that is very populated and political like Ivory Park has been a very challenging task which took team work, commitment and dedication by the Ivory Park superheroes to accomplish. The branch has successfully signed a 3 year venue MOU with Kaalfontein Secondary School.
We give much credit to the principal of Kaalfontein Secondary Mr KG Maduma and the school SGB for accommodating IkamvaYouth in such a time of need. On Saturday the 18th smiles erupted on every learner’s face as they walked their way into the new tutoring space.
This year the WITS Psychology honours students came to celebrate heritage day with IkamvaYouth Gauteng branches namely, Ebony Park and Ivory Park. The partnership that IkamvaYouth Gauteng has with Wits Psychology students started last year when Professor Jude Clark and Professor Jill Bradbury came to celebrate freedom day by organizing an Identity workshop to talk to learners about issues surrounding their identity and how it connects with Freedom Day. Same as last year, the team brought food and games for learners to play. A total number of 120 learners from both branches attended the self-awareness workshop on the 24th of September (Heritage Day) that started from 9am and ended at 16:30pm.
The day started with introductions from the team and some fun getting to know each other games where learners were told to form a circle and throw a piece of their belonging inside the circle, then everyone had to rush in the circle and pick any object that doesn’t belong to them and find the owner of the object to start a conversation with. Learners were grouped and given a facilitator to tackle certain topics. A number of groups were in place and included the following;
The group was mainly dealing with different cultures that are found in Africa, how they differ to each other and what does it mean as a person to be African. Here the team organized a modelling contest where learners had to wear different cultural clothing to showcase and embrace their culture during presentations.
- Nature’s Beauty “Bontle Ba Naga”
This group was called “Bontle ba naga”, meaning nature’s beauty. The group was mainly focusing on the things that are natural to the world and how people use this to their advantage as one learner mentioned a Mopane tree that produces Mopane worms which are regarded as food by many individuals.
This group celebrate heritage by learning different languages that are spoken and the way people sing and dance. They also touched on how a person forgets their culture and adopt other cultures or implements their own culture like that of “skhothanes” where young individuals wear expensive clothes to express their identity.
The group also discussed the negative and positive impacts of heritage where they mentioned initiation schools as a negative impact because some people open initiation schools for business without the necessary skills needed. The second negative impact was that of beliefs. The group mentioned that often people confuse ancestors with God. They clearly state that it is a negative because it courses conflict between cultures or people. The positive impact was based on respect, where the group was comparing the modern individuals to the individuals who lived in the olden days. They argued that the modern individuals lack respect compared to those of the past. “Back then children used to cook like their mothers, but now they drink like their fathers” said a grade 10 learner Moraka Dlamini. They mentioned that girls back then used to keep their virginity before marriage or for longer compared to the modern ones.
Here the group talked about initiation schools and marriages where different marriage rules are analysed and compared with other cultures. They gave an example of when a woman hasn’t been initiated will be regarded as a child by other woman who went to initiation schools.
During presentations learners were asked what they thought of heritage day. Thabo Nkgweng said “heritage day tells us about the important things that our ancestors and elders left for us to inherit”.
Throughout the day learners learned that Heritage day is not only celebrated in South Africa but throughout the world. Also they learned that heritage day reminds people where they came from and who they are.
“On the third Saturday of September each year (20 September 2014), volunteers around the world take part in the world’s biggest coastal clean-up, known as International Coastal Clean-up Day. The event has been held internationally each year for over 20 years, when people head to the beaches and begin removing debris and rubbish from shorelines, waterways and oceans”.
This year was no different, as the Western Cape Ikamvanites took to the Helderberg Marine protected area coast to clean the 4 km of beach which is the least disturbed part of the northern shore of False Bay. The Western Cape Ikamvanites came out in numbers and were more than excited to participate in such a great initiative of keeping our coasts clean.
Sesethu Soboyisi says “If the current generation doesn’t take care of the earth, what kind of earth will the next generation inherit?”
“The Clean-up was fun, it took us outside of our usual areas of residence and had us doing something good for Mother Nature” says Bubele Fokazi
This great day was made possible by various partners, thanks to the ERM team for inviting Ikamva to the coastal clean-up day.
Thank you very much to Arne Purves for the beautiful pictures, as found on this blog.
Lloyd Lungu