Tutor appreciation held on Saturday the 16th of November at the Ikageng branch was an awesome event.
The day began with an extension of gratitude to tutors by the learners for their help throughout the year. Ikageng learners then presented them uniquely designed certificates of appreciation. The dedicated tutors could not help smiling and as they received the honor, posing for photos from a crowd of cheerful learners.
One tutor said “We feel so honored to see how much the learners appreciate us. It makes us proud to be part of IkamvaYouth’’
Straight after being handed certificates, yet another surprise awaited the Ikageng tutors. The River Lodge camping site in Klerksdrop then provided a platform for team building, planning and celebrating successes between IkamvaYouth staff and tutors. The team had a one hour workshop discussing achievements, challenges, expectations and targets for the year 2014
The day ended well with dancing, braai and drinks. Warm thanks were passed over to IkamvaYouth for organizing such a great day for the tutors. They all felt appreciated and ready to start the New Year with extended energy.
The Gauteng team was out in full force at the Midrand Graduate Institutes Career Fair in early October. As an opportunity to, not only advertise the most democratic organisation to work in, we also got the very talented and driven students to sign up as volunteers at the nearby branches in the area.
MGI, like many of the higher learning institutions IkamvaYouth continues to grow partnerships with, jumped at the opportunity to get involved with us and came out in large numbers to support our drive. Many had never heard of IY before, but were very interested to find out how they can volunteer their time and become part of such a winning superhero team.
IY relies on the many committed tutors from all over South Africa’s Higher Learning institutions and if you are looking to become part of this amazing opportunity visit our website and sign up online or wait for a tutor drive coming to your varsity soon!
As the hectic exam season went underway, our funders and good friends from ABI decided to throw a good luck braai and cake day for all the grade 12 learners in Gauteng. It was a much needed break from the current pressure our learners are facing in preparing years of hard work and achievements into one busy month. Our learners have been hard at work, studying at home and attending workshops both at school and those organised by IY to make sure that all this work culminates in good results for their futures.
From all the Ikamvanites around South Africa here’s to wishing all our grade 12s the best of luck.
Keep soaring superheroes !
On 3rd October 2013 at the celebration of IkamvaYouth’s 10th Anniversary, we had the chance to share Funeka’s Story with Minister Trevor Manuel, our response to the National Planning Com story of Thandi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIiRsFYsRcg). While Thandi’s story illustrates the challenges facing the country and the poor outcomes that the majority of South African youth can expect, Funeka’s Story tells a different story, one of hope, and offers a solution to our education crisis. Minister Manuel was moved to call Funeka’s story, a “story of change”, and went on to say, ” You are the change, the model that works. (Your programme) must be taken forward.”
Funeka (in pink) waiting to greet Trevor Manuel at IkamvaYouth’s 10 year celebration
Watch this updated version of Funeka’s Story (below) which explains the IkamvaYouth model and the positive impact that our organisation is having on the future for young people participating in our youth-to-youth programme. Share in our Vision 2030 which aims to bring this model to ALL young people people in South Africa. Contact us to get involved and make this vision a reality.
A BIG THANK YOU goes to:
- Funeka, for sharing your story and being such a professional voice-over artist!
- Dan Eppel who recorded and mixed the sound
- Freshly Ground for donating the tunes
- the staff and interns who helped behind the scenes,
and especially to:
Lynne Stuart for applying her design talents to explain what we do so concisely and beautifully!
[video:http://youtu.be/cJDM8LR6-9c]
Early on Saturday morning, 28 September, Makhaza learners joined many other learners from around Cape Town at the Khayelitsha Multi-Purpose Hall. The unconventional is presented by Rethink Leardership which is an opportunity to see presentations by amazing social innovators and to interact with them. It is where they were able to share ideas with other learners from different schools and be their creative selves. The diverse group of individuals shared their ideas about how to tackle issues that affect their communities.
Ndilisa May a grade 11 learner spoke about the event, “Unconventional was a great platform for us because we had a chance to talk to awesome young innovators and to share ideas with them. The exciting part was that some of the IkamvaYouth learners were given a chance to share information about their Community Action Projects. It was inspiring as many are willing to take time and make a positive change in their communities.” The programme is about bringing out the leadership skills that all these learners possess and using these skills to better their lives and the communities they come from.
“Communication was being highlighted, because in order to know something you have to interact with others, it is also easy to work with other people when you have communication skills. You achieve better results when you work with people rather than alone”, said Talitha Maliti a grade 11 learner.
It was a day well spent for the learners of Makhaza as they commended the event as a success.
Lloyd Lungu