On the 15th and 16th March 2014, Masi hosted its annual SPW. Duing this weekend 20 learners, tutors and staff members came together to plan the year ahead taking into consideration all that has happened at the branch and all the hurdles that we must still overcome. Shuvai Finos (Nyanga Branch Coordinator) and Siphelele Madabula (Nyanga Branch Assistant) facilitated and ran the SPW.
The first part of the weekend was to trace the steps of the branch via a timeline that was done by the learners in collaboration with the tutors. Thereafter, the various challenges and burning issues of the branch were tabled out with the sole purpose of finding the more sustainable and realistic solutions going forward. After a very enlightening day of brain power and fun, the first day of SPW was done.
Day two began with was became the highlight of the weekend, the election of a new Branch Comm. It was interesting to see just how much potential in vested within each Masinite as they all stood and offered themselves to serve the Branch and be a beackon of hope in the community. After the excitement, it was back to work for us all. At this point, the Masinites had to lay out the year plan for the branch, ensuring that it was realistic and speacific. After a very tiring two days, SPW was done and all the attendees agreed that although they realised that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, they were all very excited to see the branch grow. In the masi_spwreport_2014.pdf a more detailed report of all that happened during the weekend and all the great work that is to be done at the branch is provided. Please take some time to read through it and then watch this space. To infinity and beyond!
It was David and Goliath, except for the differences in the endings of the stories, the Afrobot competition organised by SciFest Africa between Ikamvanites, Galaxy – an independent engineering team, Magnete from Graeme College(former private school) and Ntsika High School lived up to the biblical metaphor. Little did we know, that Magnete and Galaxy have had 3 and 4 years respectively to prepare and practice for this taurnament while Ikamvanites had only 3 days to prepare.
The preparation stages were shaky, as expected under the circumstances. On Day 2 of preparation, Ikamvanites demonstrated tremendously high spirit and unity of purpose as they put together their robots. A spirit of team work inspired by IY’s values of “teamwork and peer-to-peer support” became the useful tool as frustration due to pressure grew in other teams.
By 5pm on Friday, Ikamvanites were testing their robots and helping each other in preparation for the next morning’s show down. The teams had to build remote controlled robots to pick up or push 6 cans from one place to a designated spot in a space of 90 seconds.
Both Ikamvanites’ teams demolished Ntsika High School, added Graeme College among the casualties and went on to meet in the finals of their category.
Exhilarating as the finals of the pushers were, the fact that both teams were Ikamavanites added a bit of sourness to it. The winning team in the Pushers final went on to meet the winning team in the Lifters category, Galaxy. Though Galaxy took 4 years to build their robot, they were certainly given a run for their money by Ikamvanites which saw them winning by a small margin of just 2 points.
The creativity, courage, determination and commitment shown by Ikamvanites through the preparation stages of the taurnament and the tremendous discipline demonstrated during the actual competition saw us earning an early invitation to the taurnament due to take place in March 2015. Indeed, Ikamva Lisezandleni Zethu!
The sky is not the limit for Khayelitsha astrophysicists
The matric class of 2013 was IkamvaYouth’s 9th and by far our largest ever, with over 150 Ikamvanites. These dedicated young men and women come from 7 different townships in 3 provinces, and they have overcome extraordinary adversity to reach and pass matric. From extreme poverty to gang violence, disintegrating families to drug and alcohol abuse, townships like Nyanga and Umlazi, the places the Ikamvanites call home, struggle with terrible social problems.
Despite those problems, the Ikamvanites of 2013 not only achieved an 89% matric pass rate, but 73% of have already gone on to access the post-school opportunities they need to set them on the path to earning a dignified living.
Even more impressively, 46% of the matriculants accessed either Universities or Universities of Technology – proving that where you come from is no barrier to where you can get to in life. Ikamvanites are entering fields of study from Chemical Engineering to Law, Accounting to Education, Information Technology to Nursing. A record 10 Ikamvanites began their first year at the prestigious University of Cape Town this year, including top Makhaza students Sipho Ngqayimbana and Abongile Jojozi, who are both studying Astrophysics. Perhaps the next Stephen Hawking will be from Khayelitsha!
Overall, 63% of the Ikamvanites who passed matric in 2013 accessed some form of tertiary studies, including at FETs and private colleges. A further 8% accessed learnerships, and 10% have returned to school to supplement or upgrade their matric marks. We will continue to work with those Ikamvanites who have not yet found a post-school opportunity, and help set them, too, on the path to a dignified living.
IkamvaYouth wishes to thank our committed partners and sponsors for all the support they’ve given us and the brilliant Ikamvanites of 2013.
We would also like to call on any other interested organisations or individuals who can partner with us to help place the class of 2014, and work towards our Vision 2030 for South Africa. We would especially like to hear from bursary providers and organisations able to provide learnerships, internships and apprenticeships.
On Friday the 14th of March 2014, our grade 10, 11 and 12 learners of the Masi branch attended a Career Fair that was held in Rondebosch. This was a very special day for the learners as they got the opportunity to explore an unfamiliar environment while also gaining valuable knowledge of the various opportunities available to them. Attendance from the learners was extremely impressive and the general attitude amongst the learners was that of willingness to learn and determination to pursue available opportunities.
The Career fair was a great opportunity for the Masi learners to get exposed to the many careers that exist, learn more things and interact with learners and tutors from the other IY branches who also attended the Career Fair. Given the distance between the branch and the venue, by the time the learners arrived, many of the other schools and attendees were already on their way out, giving our Masi learners a greater opportunity to obtain as much information as possible.
Going through the career exhibition the learners appeard to be having fun while also getting all the information they needed and more about all the different career choices available to them and the enterance requirements for each. It was a great pleasure seeing how being in an unfamiliar environment can assist with building an excitment to learn and grow.
A report from the learners concluced that more of such events are wanted and needed for the learners in order to obtian more information about more opportunities.
The beginning of the year is always an exciting time for IY branches as we usher the previous year’s Matrics into post-school opportunities, welcome new learners and tutors and together decide on the goals and outcomes of the new year. On the 8th and 9th of March 2014, Nyanga branch held its annual Strategic Planning Weekend (SPW). Staff members, learners and volunteers came together for 2 days to discuss the year ahead and what nyanganites should do to make 2014 a success.
This year’s SPW was different from previous ones because the majority of learners who attended are new to IY Nyanga, having started at the beginning of the year. Furthermore, the weekend was facilitated by our Makhaza Branch Coordinator, Zukile, in line with IY’s value of collaboration and peer-to-peer support.
Over the 2 days, nyanganites worked in small groups to identify challenges faced by the branch, and come up with solutions to these challenges. On the second day, the team elected the 2014 branch committee who shall work together with the rest of the branch to make sure the branch accomplishes all things outlined at the SPW. Please find the full SPW on the following link: nyanga_spw_report_2014.pdf
Lloyd Lungu