Initiated in July 2010 by the World Teach volunteers, the Masi Man Club’s has been created for answering youth concerns, promoting personal development, supporting collective actions within the Masiphumelele Community.
In 2011, the Masi Man Club’s members have been really active in supporting people who have been affected by the fire in May 2011. In fact, they volunteered their time to help carry building material and rebuild houses.
The format of each session answers 3 requirements:
– To be outside of the Library or outside the Community,
– To have a physical activity through sports or collective games,
– To provide time for a topic discussion.
Nick Jones, history teacher and tutor at the Masiphumelele Branch, took over the Masi Man Club to propose a space where Ikamvanites can raise their concerns, express their opinions; propose solutions in a safe environment.
Members proposed the following topics to be discussed and developed along the year:
– What does that mean to be a Man for me today?
– What are the different kinds of relationships? And how a young man will deal with them?
– Peer pressure and peer support?
– Drug abuse and risks behaviours
– Protected sex.
– Dealing with my emotion.
– Get more information on fire safety, and get skills to answer this issue in the community.
– Career choices
– Hiking
– Repartition of tasks within the members
– Fundraising for the Masi Man Club activities and outings.
To be continued… 🙂
Thanks to the support and assistance from Thabo Bidla, Mxolisi Gontsa, other community leaders, a team of amazing painters; Liesel, Siswe, Busiswa, and Wanda, and the kind donation of 10 tables from Black Sash, the Nyanga Branch has opened its doors at the Zolani Centre.
Tutoring sessions, learning and fun times have begun!
Learners tackling Math during Thursday’s tutoring session
The first couple of weeks of tutoring have been tulmultuous due to strikes at Mandela High School that involved many Ikamvanites who were outraged at the illegal request for learners to pay for their textbooks that are issued at financed by government. The principal was called to task and learners and parents demanded that the textbooks be distributed without the additional payment. Learners felt it was important to stand up for their rights and were successful in getting their voices heard.
The strike over, and with textbooks in hand the learners are now showing diligence and commitment to IkamvaYouth. Saturday morning saw a brilliant turn out of learners and tutors, all fully engaged.
Exciting programmes and activities are planned for the centre. The Kahn Academy together with a grant from the US Embassy are establishing a brand new computer lab at the centre. This will enable the delivery of computer literacy activities as well as offering the Kahn programme itself which is an innovative solution to math education. Learners are able to work through a series of activities at their own pace, and therefore take control of their own learning.
Lovelife have also expressed an interest in collaborating with IkamvaYouth and will provide a Health and Life Skills programme once a month for Ikamvanites. The focus will be on HIV/AIDS but with the added element of life skills and personal development. This initiative will be starting at the beginning of next term.
With a beautiful space, new furniture, eager learners and tutors, and many plans for the year ahead Nyanga Branch is full of excitement!
This past weekend of the 3rd and 4th March our Makhaza held their 2012 Strategic Planning Weekend. It was an excellent opportunity for volunteers, tutors and leaner reps to participate in core operational planning and goal setting.
The Main goal of our SPW was to elect a branch committee (in charge of roles and portfolios) and for new volunteers (grade12 from last year returning) to take ownership of programme and become part of the management team. It was also a great weekend for the leaner reps and tutors to get to know each other better.
Being a branch committee member isn’t easy, with the prestige comes a huge amount responsibility and high expectations from the rest of the learners and tutors to raise the branch up for the year and provide quality programmes.
We decided to shake things up a little this weekend and work together to provide all the branches with a working document that is the branch com constitution, outlining why it exists, the main aims and goals as well as cementing responsibilities of the various programmes.
Unathi Smile, a volunteer and intern at Makhaza says, ‘the weekend was a great experience for many of us, but speaking for myself it was a brilliant way of putting things in perspective. Saturday afternoon, what I took with me is that, 26 heads are so much better than 1 head, meaning if one person had to sit and think about burning issues at IkamvaYouth Makhaza branch, that would not have been a great experience and I assure that somebody would have taken time in thinking about these and finding solutions at the same time. Sunday morning was just too good to be true, learner reps appointed members of the branch comm. and I am proud to say that I was appointed for two portfolios, namely, Career Guidance and Computer (Khan Academy).
We had to present goals, what needs to be done to reach that particular goal, by when the goals should be reached and by whom. I have no experience of leading a team but it is great to learn and persevere at the same time meeting the needs of the learners and those of the Makhaza IkamavaYouth branch. I have taken away with me memories and have learned that one must not under estimate the ability of others.’
Zesipho Dyonase, Grade 9, says that “I have learnt that you don’t have to hold back any ideas or views that you have, you must voice them out. I have taken away with me the spirit of working together as a team, through that spirit, nothing can bring IkamvaYouth down.”
And our youngest branch comm member, confident and outspoken Grade 8 learner Luxhase Yokwana, head of tutoring says “I had so much fun, and definitely took away a lot of things, one of them being able to work with other learners from different grades. My parents were so proud of me when I told them that I am in the IkamvaYouth Makhaza branch committee, what is left of the Ikamvanites now is to put the plans into action.”
Read the full report here and have a look at our new Branch Comm Constitution
Our new Branch Committee 2012!
Plans become action lists
Puthang running through why we exist and the issues faced at the branch
All of IkamvaYouth’s programmes are delivered ‘for’/’by’ the youth rather than ‘to’ the youth. IkamvaYouth’s methodology is based on a learner-centred model that values democratic decision-making at the branch and national level, paying-it-forward, learner ownership, operational transparency, and peer-to-peer learning.
IkamvaYouth values the need to create a culture of responsibility and works in a way that gives learners responsibility for their peronsal actions but also raises their awareness of the consequences and impact of their actions on others. The SPW is a key mechanism to raise this awareness and create this sense of democracy, transparency, and accountability.
At the SPW the Branch Committee is elected, which maintains this democratic youth-led structure. Each branch’s management committee (branchcom) is voted annually and everyone (including parents, partner organisations, learners, community leaders) is welcome to participate in branchcom meetings held every two weeks. Everyone gets one vote; official branchcom members get two. Everything is discussed openly and transparently (including salaries, performance reviews, budget decisions etc.) and everyone gets a say in how things are done at the branch level.
2011 Timeline
The BranchCom is elected at the beginning of each school year at the Strategic Planning Weekend (SPW). This year at Masiphumelele it was spread across 3 weekends.30 learners attended the 1st session to find out more and then a core group of 15 maintained an interest in participating in the decision-making process. The 3 sessions were great and encouraged learners to think about their needs and wants within the programme and even touched on external concerns that could be addressed through Ikamva.
The 1st BranchCom meeting will be held on the 12th March and the BranchCom will be officially elected. Through this system, learners are really owning their choices and valuing their input into branch decisions. It is truly special to see this and it is what makes IkamvaYouth an innovative and exciting programme.
Please see the SPW report for an overview of what was discussed and how participation was fostered.
On the first day 30 learners arrived to find out how they could get involved
The DG Murray Trust has made a significant investment in IkamvaYouth, towards core operational costs and to enable an independent evaluation of our impact, which Dr Servaas van den Berg is currently conducting.
The Trust has also recently published a learning brief from IkamvaYouth. Read the full report here to learn more about our organisation, how we began, how we operate, the impact we’ve achieved to date and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.
The newest branch of IkamvaYouth in Ivory Park – supported by African Bank – officially opened its doors to 90 local learners in Grades 10 and 11 on Saturday 11 February 2012 and the tutoring sessions were quickly in full swing. The brand-new Ikamvanites were selected from over 700 applicants and it was an incredibly difficult job trying to work out who we think are going to be the most committed learners this year.
A number of our longest serving volunteers have moved across from the established Ebony Park branch to the new Ivory Park branch to help us get started and ensure we do things the unique IkamvaYouth way. The energy and dedication evident in our new group of learners is infectious and it’s impossible to attend a session and not feel like something special is happening in Ivory Park.
We have been massively privileged to welcome a number of volunteers from the University of Johannesburg and even though many of these volunteers are themselves brand-new Ikamvanites, they have fitted in seamlessly and their contribution is hugely valued and important. We have to express a big thank you to all the new and returning volunteers at all the IkamvaYouth branches but we especially want to thank the new cohort at Ivory Park as it is this group that will help us begin a journey that will continue to benefit learners from the Ivory Park community even long after these volunteers have moved on to other things themselves.
Finally, we have to say a massive thank you to African Bank for sponsoring the new branch and we look forward to reporting on significant improvement in the grades and results of the first group of Ivory Park IkamvaYouth learners who will graduate in 2013.
To volunteer at either of our Gauteng branches, sign up to our weekly volunteer emailing list here. Free transport is available every Saturday from both Wits and UJ.
Lloyd Lungu