IkamvaYouth programmes are provided to the township youth at no cost. The learners are expected to commit themselves so as to improve their results in school. The Ikamvanites in Gauteng (Ivory Park and Ebony Park) have gone beyond being just beneficiaries of the Ikamva programmes, to giving back to the community. The idea of Ikamva Cares, an initiative to give back to the community, was suggested during the 2011 Winter School.
On the 26th of May, the Gauteng Ikamvanites, in partnership with Tzu Chi Foundation embarked on a heart touching act of kindness to help an elderly woman in the Ivoty Park community. The elderly woman is known to be staying on her own for the past 12years, with no track of any of her relatives. The community members have made several attempts to have the elderly woman removed from the community. The elderly woman has developed mental health problems, and she finds herself gathering wood, brocken equipment, bones, rugs and empty containers, thus filling the house and the yard with dirty. The children in the community have labelled her a witch, because she uses a ‘vampire-like’ doll to scare them away when they tease her. Lots of rates were breeding in her house and yard, and the smell of dirty and dead rates was unpleasant to the neighbours. But she would not allow anyone set foot on her yard, which was all heaps of rubble gathered over many years.
The Ikamvanites braved the smell and the dirty to clean the house and the yard. It took at least 3hrs for the Ikamvanites and Tzu Chi volunteers to clean the house and yard, with the heap of rubble almost blocking the street. The rubble truck had to make 3loads to clear the rubble, besides the 4 loads which the Tzu Chi volunteers had cleared the previous day. The Ikamvanites were so excited they had something to give to others. The community marvelled at the learners’ act of kindness, and one of the members noted that the grown-ups in the community had failed the elderly woman, but the Ikamvanites came to her rescue from the stinking atmosphere she was living in. The community member went on to say that what the Ikamvanites had done was not only for the elderly woman, but for the whole community, citing that the rubble was a pollution to the neighbourhood, as rats were spreading to the neighbours from the elderly woman’s house. Tzu Chi Foundation has plans to demolish the almost collapsing house, and avail a new house for the elderly woman.
This is just the beginning of many such acts of kindness by Ikamvanites to give back to the community.
“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” ? Mother Teresa
About 40 Grade 10 learners from both the Ebony Park and Ivory Park branches in Gauteng attended the Hip2b2 Innovation Challenge Introduction Event. The focus of the event was to spark the interest of learners in Maths and Science and they were told that their innovation could win them the ” SA Young Innovator of the year award.”
Maths, Science and Technology related topics where presented to the learners in a fun, interesting and relevant way. It was a fun-filled afternoon event with activites, team challenges and videos introducing learners to the world of innovation, science and engineering. Learners were given guidance on how maths and science lay foundations or building blocks for careers in the fields of innovation, technology, healthcare, safety and transport.
HIP2B² has partnered with 3M, a diversified technology company serving customers and communities with innovative products and services and industry leaders in innovative solutions for everyday life, and our learners got to see how exciting maths and science can be.
Our learners are geared up and ready to show the world how they can contribute to their communities positively.
On Saturday the 12th of May, 25 Grade 12 learners were at the IkamvaYouth Ebony Park centre by 6:30am ready to attend the much awaited University Open Days. The Universities that had Open Days included Wits University, University of Johannesburg and Tshwane University of Technology. The learners arrived at the different Universities by 7:30 am and began to tour the University grounds and also began to interact with other learners from the universities as well as other High Schools. They toured around the different faculties and with the assistance of our very commited volunteers, the learners began to make some serious decisions about what they wanted to study in tertiary and see what they already qualified for with their current marks.
The Ikamvanites enjoyed the whole experience and said that it gave them a chance to interact with people from all over the country and also get a perspective of what university life is like from the university students. Dikamatso, an Ikamvanite from Tsosolotso High School said that it was a great motivator to see what they saw and experience all they experienced. The end result of the day was that the Ikamvanites decided to continue to take their future into their own hands by collecting the application forms and bursary applications. The Matriculants all understand that by failing to prepare they are already preparing themselves to fail, therefore preparation is very essential.
We look forward to succcessful Grade 12’s this year and the IY team would like to continue to thank the loyal volunteers who have committed themselves to helping all our learners.
An information-packed workshop started with an intense Saturday Tutorial Session which was followed by a mind elevating workshop which was facilitated by the Tzu Chi Foundation South Africa. Tzu Chi Foundation is a Buddhist volunteer organization, that has extended its relief support from Tembisa’s disadvantaged families to two branches of IkamvaYouth based in Ebony and Ivory Park. Tzu Chi Foundation South Africa was formerly known as the Chinese people that always bring fruits at break time during IkamvaYouth Saturday Tutorial Sessions, until they broke new grounds and provided 6 Ikamvanites with bursaries to further their studies at Wits, UJ, UP and other credible tertiary institutions in the Gauteng Province. Tzu Chi volunteers are visiting Ikamvanites’ homes to assess the need and intervene accordingly. This provides a holistic approach to leaners and gives other learners opportunities to change to lives of other community members.
Howard Teng, the younger brother of the MC of the day, Dean Teng, brought along an energetic, physically fit, and knowledgeable professional who was kind enough to introduce rare careers in the townships of South Africa, Bio kinetics and Sport Science. Michael da Silva is a highly profiled and experienced Biokineticist and Sport Scientist. He has worked for Bafana bafana and the Springboks, amongst the others. Michael enthusiastically took us through his academic career before and after he qualified as a Biokineticist at Wits University. His energetic, impressive and interactive presentation kept everybody on their toes and left us with more inspiration and motivation to explore this field as a future career.
Tzu Chi volunteers made a presentation and to top it all, danced with everybody to an inspiring song performed with sign language.
“Drum Beats……” And the Winner of a New Samsung Phone is Mary Makgamatha who is joined by her colleague Nompumelelo Nkosi in celebrating her achievement. Mary’s poster won in an IkamvaYouth Democracy competition announced in a joint session between Ebony and Ivory Park Branches. The awarding of these prizes took place on Saturday the 14th of April 2012 just after the tutorial session. The competition was open to both tutors and learners.
Mary could not contain her happiness when Modjadji handed over the Samsung phone in a box and expressed her gratitude to her colleagues that have encouraged and supported her when she was engaging her creative juices, to produce a story-telling, winning poster. Well done, Mary!
IkamvaYouth Gauteng had an extra-ordinary Saturday Tutoring Session on the 14th of April as we took the last hour of the tutoring session to celebrate IkamvaYouth being the first South African (and African) organisation to make it onto the WorldBlu-accredited list of the “World’s most Democratic Organisations”. The two branches in Gauteng (Ebony Park and Ivory Park) came together making the venue full to capacity with over 250 learners and over 50 tutors. The celebration was attended by our Guest Speaker Phumza Makanya-Ojowuro, the Director of Employee Relations and Wellness at UNISA who spoke to everyone who was present about what Democracy is and how important it is to South Africa and the world. She also expressed how proud she was of IkamvaYouth and how this is an important announcement to the whole country.
To mark the occasion, the IkamvaYouth branches in Gauteng were running a competition for learners and volunteers to submit a response to the question, “What does democracy mean to me.” Learners wrote essays and employed their creative means to answer this question. This day was filled with loads of fun as the winners who entered our competition were announced after Phumza’s Makanya- Ojowuro’s speech. Five learners walked away with airtime vouchers and two learners walked away with a cellular phone voucher each. Our funders African Bank and ABI attended the function with ABI bringing drinks to hand out to everyone who was present at the celebrations. The Tzu Chi Foundation, who have been great IkamvaYouth Gauteng supporters, were also present and brought along their boxes full of apples for all the learners and volunteers.
The learners were especially inspired as one of the learners Shaun Theko said, “She’s glad she is living in a democratic South Africa and even more glad that IkamvaYouth has continued to be such a good example to everyone.”
We continue to reiterate the words spoken by Joy Olivier Co-founder and Director of IkamvaYouth, “democracy is not just something we do at IkamvaYouth, it is who we are.”
Lloyd Lungu