Every IkamvaYouth programme is aimed at ensuring that every Ikamvanite ‘becomes something’ through education. It is so humbling and encouraging to realise that our sponsors are prepared to give more than just financial assistance for the best of Ikamvanites. African Bank staff has demonstrated genuine commitment and interest to mentor 6 of our Ebony Park grade 12s.
The mentoring programme provides Ikamvanites in grade 12 with the opportunity to get one-on-one support from individuals who are in tertiary, or have been through tertiary. Such support includes ensuring the Ikamvanite accesses post school opportunities as well as inspiration and motivation. The Mentor’s personal experience through tertiary education provides valuable inspiration for the township learner to realise the possibilities of success through hard work, and how education can emancipate them from poverty.
the_joy_of_mentoring_ikamvanites.pdf
The Mentors from African Bank met their Mentees for the first time on Saturday the 4th of August, and spent an hour getting to know each other, as well as signing the mentorship agreement. The mentors and mentees chose to sit in the sun, in a relaxed but confidential setting. The immediate proof of the effectiveness of the mentorship programme was that one of the Mentors offered to pay for her Mentee to apply at Tshwane Universty of Technology (TUT). The Mentors and the Mentees agreed to give the best to the relationship. The Mentors marvelled at how positive all the mentees were about the mentorship programme. The Mentors made a commitment to bring more of their colleagues to become mentors.
While African Bank is funding our Ivory Park branch, which will only have the first group of grade 12s next year, the Mentors are so committed that they did not mind mentoring at a branch that their company is not funding. So, it is giving more than just financial support. They are giving to a good cause. Many thanks to Devendri Pillay (African Bank representative) and her colleagues for stepping in to avail the much needed mentoring service to the learners!
I have always loved giving back and helping out wherever and whenever I can, so when I saw the opportunity to give back on Mandela day via “Cheesekids for humanity” (An NGO founded by the philanthropist – Shaka Sisulu) I immediately got excited and registered on their website.
I wasn’t alone in this as I was accompanied by my dear friend and Umlazi tutor Zandile “Dizzy” Dlamini. The giving back was initially scheduled for the 15th of July and due to weather conditions in Johannesburg and Cape Town at that time it couldn’t happen, (of course Durban was sunny and bright as usual). The date was then postponed to the 29th of July with hope that the weather would not be as gloomy as it was for the past two weeks. The 29th of July came and sadly the turn out wasn’t that great as we all had anticipated, assumingly everyone was “over” the Mandela day spirit however that didn’t stop us from our mission to make a change.
Each cheeesekid would be allocated to one of the surrounding townships of Durban which were (Marianhill, KwaMashu, and KwaNyuswa). We found ourselves in Marianhill at the Jabulani Self-Help Centre. The Jabulani Self-Help Centre provides help through self-help projects and support for disadvantaged women and their children. The centre was founded in 1988 by Sister Macro Gneis with help from the missionaries in the surrounding areas. Our task for the day was painting and brightening up the recreational rooms, halls and activity rooms the kids use at the centre.
Interestingly enough Marianhill is the place I grew up in for most of my childhood and were Zandile’s family grew up in and this was very humbling which reaffirms that nothing happens by chance. It was a really gratifying experience and hope that everyone doesn’t wait for days such as Mandela day to give back, making that small difference in just ones person’s life is a huge difference itself. And at IY we do that all day and every day.
Cheryl Nzama
I’m a Cheesekid, have been for the past year. I joined Cheesekids last year in July just before Nelson Mandela Day, soon after encouraged my friends to join in too. Being a Volunteer means a lot to me because it means I am able to make a difference in someones life which is something rare these days, a lot of people are only concerned about themselves and how they will benefit and are less caring about the needy and less fortunate. I believe in giving without expecting anything back and taking with appreciation.
This year Cheesekids has had a few charity events, the latest one being the Nelson Mandela Day Revolution which I took part in and had fun, although there were a lot of disappointments with attendence from my usual Cheesekids crowd, it was lovely experiencing something new with new people. Painting the buildings at Jabulani Self-Help Centre was rewarding for me and those who use the centre because I had fun while giving back to a community my family grew up in and those who use the centre get to have a welcoming place that adds colour and hope into their lives .
Zandile ‘Dizzy’ Dlamini
The last day of winter school for the Ebony and Ivory Park branches was filled with mixed emotions. We were sad about the end of winter school, uplifted by the amazing contributions at the talent show, and overwhelmed by a rather daunting part of the programme: “Andrew’s Farewell”. Andrew has been a key ikamvanite since 2009 and his contribution has been so significant that it’s really rather impossible to say goodbye. We have this saying “once an ikamvanite, always an ikamvanite”, and so, rather than bidding Andrew farewell, we spent some time thanking and celebrating him.
Andrew and I first met in 2008, when he became interested in our Operation Fikelela curriculum and its potential use for Siyakhula. He was interested in the IY model, decided to pilot it, and then founded IkamvaYouth Gauteng in 2009. His selfless commitment to realising his vision for the Ebony Park community has been relentless; he has been at every single Saturday tutoring session for three and a half years, and has built not only two branches in Gauteng, but played a key role on natcom, informing who we are and how we do things, and enabling us to become an organisation with a national footprint.
Together with the many learners, tutors and supporters whose efforts he’s inspired and coordinated along the way, Andrew has made an incredible impact. In 2011, the Ebony Park branch achieved a 94% pass rate and 100% post school placement, with 45% at universities, and last year they reached a 100% pass rate and 83% access to tertiary.
Not only has Andrew’s work fundamentally changed the lives of the people he’s worked with, but he has established something that will keep on changing many lives. The individuals who were learners during Andrews time will become the tutors who will support more learners to reach similar heights.
But this work is not easy, and it’s this, even more than the outcomes that I want to thank Andrew for. Andrew has essentially been volunteering for IkamvaYouth all of this time. He has a full-time job running his own NGO, and has sacrificed massive amounts to create this beautiful home for all of us. And he even managed to study and win awards in addition to his two full time jobs! He has sweated the small stuff: filling out attendance, capturing data, making sandwiches and dealing with the un-fun aspects of this work. And he’s also been a visionary leader who’s inspired hundreds of people to change the world.
So I’m not going to say farewell. I know that our organisations will continue to collaborate and that ultimately we are still working together towards the same goal:
The fact that 2 million of the 2.8 million South Africans Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETS) haven’t passed matric tells us something about how to fix this problem. What IkamvaYouth and Siyakhula are working towards is ensuring that young South Africans don’t become NEETS but rather IETS. (“Iets” means “something” in Afrikaans.)
So what IkamvaYouth and SEF and everyone in that room on the last day of winter school, led by Andrew, is doing, is ensuring that ikamvanites become iets; become something. Ikamvanites become something so great that very soon they can in turn help other learners to become something. And what ikamvanites are going to become and are becoming already, are the leaders of the country. Because the generations before us do not know how to fix this problem. The education crisis is so huge and so massive that they are scared by it. But we do know how to fix it. And instead of wringing our hands and talking about how we need to work together to fix things, we’re getting on with it.
That’s what Andrews been doing for the last 4 years, and, through SEF, is going to continue doing for the next many years, and so this isn’t a goodbye but a huge thank you. For your leadership, your volunteerism, your inspiration, your selflessness, for challenging us, for pushing us, and for sharing all you know with this amazing team of people who will continue with the amazing work you started.
I was very honoured to be invited by Capitec Bank and Argo Publishers to participate in a panel discussion together with some amazing women who’re doing extraordinary work in education. On 4th July we met at the Sandton Convention centre to discuss how to really make a difference to the learners in our schools, by sharing, combining and collaborating across all the different systems to make a systemic impact. My fellow panelists were:
The minutes of our discussion are available here.
The conversation was a great opportunity to reflect on the power of collaboration, and to gain a better understanding of effective ways in which to collaborate. I shared some of the experiences IkamvaYouth and Capitec have had in working together towards common goals.
IkamvaYouth was initially entirely run and funded by volunteers, and then our early years were funded mostly by foundations; many of which continue to support our work years on. In the past 2-3 years, corporate south Africa has begun to take notice of our work, as the people who come through our program are the kinds of people they want to hire. In addition to being academic achievers, ikamvanites live the values of giving back/paying-it-forward, and have gained valuable work experience through being branchcom members.
These partnerships provide huge scope for innovative collaboration beyond funding, and in addition to multi-year financial support, Capitec is assisting IkamvaYouth in the following ways:
* Programme delivery
Capitec staff have enthusiastically become involved in working directly with our learners. During the recent winter schools, they held financial literacy training programmes for all the Western Cape branches, and will be participating in the upcoming Careers Indaba.
* Measuring impact
The realiability of learners’ school reports at some schools can be problematic, and accessing this data is often challenging (although it’s illegal to withhold school reports due to unpaid school fees, many schools continue to do so). It’s thus quite tricky to know how our learners are doing until they write the national exams. Capitec has stepped in to address this challenge by opening up the assessments they use for recruitment, which measure literacy, numeracy and problem-solving abilities.
* Enabling access to opportunities
Capitec has a progressive policy whereby they hire people from the communities where their branches are. As they’re bringing banking to under-served communities which are typically under-resourced, they’re struggling to find prospective employees who’re sufficiently numerate and literate.
One of our Makhaza tutors, Unathi Smile, wrote the Capitec assessments and made it all the way through to becoming recruited! Capitec has also awarded bursaries to cover grade 10s’ school fees at IkamvaYouth’s feeder schools.
* Infrastructure support
As Capitec upgrades its computer equipment, they’ve set about refurbishing and delivering them to IkamvaYouth branches to enable the establishment of new labs and expansion of existing ones.
* Strategic support:
Capitec has scaled a simple, smart solution to reach communities in need. Sbusiso Khumalo has joined IkamvaYouth’s board of directors, and is providing advice and guidance to enable us to scale and meet the demand for our services while still maintaining our track record of results.
These are just some of the examples where smart, easy collaboration leads to greatly enhanced reach and impact. The challenges presented by the crisis in education are far too large and looming for one organisation, company or even Government Department to overcome alone. A large-scale collaborative effort is called for, and IkamvaYouth is greatly appreciative of the combined efforts of our donors and partners which are making great strides and changing lives.
By Charmaine Gxekwa, Lindokulhe Ntombana, Aphiwe Tukani and Phumza Kibi
ENKE-MAKE YOUR MARK!!!
WHY WE APPLIED FOR ENKE
We wanted to gain knowledge and improve our skills by interacting and learning from other people. We wanted to get to know other people and their backgrounds. It was mostly about us adapting to other environments and working together towards a common goal, trying to change our environment as the youth.
WHAT WE LEARNT FROM ENKE
We learnt how to work as a team and most importantly that everyone plays a role in the team. We discovered who we really are and that everyone matters. We learnt to never underestimate people before you really know them and never let anyone tell you what to do when you know you’re capable of more. We also created friendships with different people from different backgrounds. We now have the knowledge of how one can change their environment matter how small the change is, it makes a difference at the end of the day it all matters.
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?
We are going to go back to our communities and identify a passion, major concern or problem that we to have and try to improve or change it .We are going to carry out our own projects as the youth and try to make a change, for we are the future leaders. Anything is possible and we intend to prove that. We want to create a movement, to create a better world for the future generation. We want to be the change we want to see in the world. We want to run a project that will help and inspire the community or change someone’s life. We intend on making a huge difference.
Visit the ENKE website: www.enke.co.za
Lloyd Lungu