Funding from major corporate companies is always welcomed by organizations such as ours, as it means we can continue serving the communities we work in, in the best way we can. It is however so humbling and indeed encouraging when the employees of that company demonstrate a genuine interest and willingness to participate actively in their company’s social investment initiatives. ABI, is such a company, as demonstrated in the past few weeks.
On the 28th of June, ABI hosted a media launch, formally opening the doors of the new branch in Umlazi, which began operations in April this year. We were invited as honored guests at the event, which was quite exciting as we got to meet with various members of the mangement team, and had an opportunity to learn a little more about this amazing company.
ABI’s involvement in our winter school cannot go unnoticed. The day after the launch, ABI employees joined learners for their sports day, eagerly participating in all the events and getting to know the learners. ABI also got involved in our careers day, aimed at introducing learners to various career possibilities. The CSI team have been amazing, providing refreshments at these events, sponsoring t-shirts and water bottles for all the learners, as well as providing sound and sports equipment for the sports day.
As Tumi (Corporate Affairs Manager at ABI), said in her speech at the launch, “ABI does not just talk the talk, they indeed walk the walk”. ABI’s involvement in these few weeks is testimony to that. IkamvaYouth kzn is indeed privileged and honored to be partnering with not just a major company, but a team of individuals dedicated to the upliftmet of others!
Samkelo Nkosi speaking at the Careers Day
The ABI truck that provided entertainment and refreshments throught the day on Sports Day.
On the 29th of June, at the Durban University of Technology Sports grounds, IkamvaYouth Umlazi and Chesterville branches held the first IYKZN Sports day.
The day was to be filled with fun activities for the learners and volunteers alike. The best part of the story is that ABI was to come on board and help out on the day. They came through in a big way. Not only did they provide balls, bibs, whistles, refreshments, juice bottles and T-shirts, they also brought staff members to volunteer and participate in the day’s activities, as well as a huge entertainment truck to keep the energy going throughout the day.
The ABI entertainment truck
The first order of the day was the 100+ learners and volunteers separating themselves into 4 teams. The teams, which were initially colour coded (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow), were tasked with coming up with a creative name, designing a flag, and coming up with a war-cry/song to represent their team.
The red team (Umlilo)
The green team (Izingqungqulu)
The blue team (Blue buuls)
The yellow team (Peace makers)
The day kicked off with soccer and netball knock-out tournaments running alongside each other. The ABI staff were deep in the thick of things, with some guys playing in the matches and others serving as officials. The netball matches were very heated, with guys and girls, volunteers and learners all getting in on the action. The same can be said for the soccer match, where 4 ABI employees were deep in the action. The matches were action packed and very diverse in terms of paricipation.
After the soccer and netball, we saw athletics going under way. With a 100m dash, 400m and 100m egg relay all being on the cards. Once again everyone stepped up to the plate, volunteers, ABI employees, and learners alike participated in every event.
The last part of the day was the indigenous games. The leaners played games such as marbles, tops, skipping rope and stones (amagenda). This was really fun for the learners, as these are games that are played in the townships.
throughout the day ABI provided us with bottomless refreshments, not a single person went thirsty. Special thanks to the ABI team for their presence, it was really felt. In closing we all cleaned up the grounds and left them spotless and to a group photo with everyone who was there.
Netball action
The Soccer players stretching
HSRC: Challenges and opportunities in addressing youth unemployement seminar
What way forward?
IkamvaYouth was invited for the HSRC seminar that was held via video conference in the three major cities of South Africa (Tshwane, Cape Town and Durban). The Durban seminar was attended by Thabisile Seme (Regional Co-ordinator for KZN) and Cheryl Nzama (Branch Assistant: Chesterville branch). The Seminar took place at the HSRC Cato Manor offices near the Chesterville branch and the ikamvanites received a warm welcome from the HSRC staff.
The opening speaker for the Seminar was Dr Monde Makiwane who discussed the “youth bulge”, a phenomenon that South Africa currently faces. He explained the youth bulge phenomenon as being the “result of the cohort of young people and prime-aged adults increasing at an alarming rate –and this is not caused by the high teenage pregnancy rate S.A has but by the fact that more people were born during the early 80’s & 90”s – and since S.A is a developing country, the high unemployment rate is associated with the youth bulge.
The second speaker, Dr Miriam Altman, discussed key challenges linked with youth unemployment. The seminar raised the question of how the government and South Africa at large are to tackle the high unemployment rate that mostly affects the youth.
There are a lot of factors that affect the high unemployment rate of South Africa however the youth needs to stop relying on the government and take matters into their own hands and go out there and want that better future for themselves and families too. The right attitude always leads you to your goals undoubtedly!
Click on the following links to access the presentations:
youth_bulge_presentation.pdf
youth_employment_-_altman_-_june_13_-_2012.pdf
Cheryl Nzama
Great news for IkamvaYouth as we become the first South African (and African) organisation to make it onto the WorldBlu-accredited list of the “World’s most Democratic Organisations”.
IkamvaYouth is in the habit of performing minor miracles as most of the township high-school learners who join the programme need to jump at least at least 2 or 3 symbols to access quality post-school opportunities when they matriculate. However, it is not just what IkamvaYouth does, but also how IkamvaYouth does it that contributes to its sustained success. For the past 5 years, IkamvaYouth has achieved a matric pass-rate of between 85-100% and over 70% of IkamvaYouth learners have gained access to tertiary education. This is particularly impressive given the prevailing schooling challenges in South Africa and that IkamvaYouth does not have an initial academic entry requirement for learners.
A key feature of IkamvaYouth’s achievements is a commitment to inclusive value-based democratic decision-making which has resulted in IkamvaYouth’s inclusion in this year’s Worldblu List of the “World’s Most Democratic Workplaces”. There are 7 township-based IkamvaYouth branches in 3 provinces across South Africa and each branch is run by a democratically elected branch committee (branch-com) made up of committed volunteers and beneficiary representatives. The branch-com is responsible for implementing the IkamvaYouth model and everyone is invited to participate (including parents, partner organisations, learners, and community leaders) in all matters relating to the functioning of the branch. Great emphasis is placed on ensuring all deliberations are open and transparent and all aspects of the local branch are open for discussion including budget allocations and recommendations, hiring and firing of branch coordinators, performance reviews, budget decisions and ideas for improving the core programme offerings.
Joy Olivier, co-founder and director of IkamvaYouth, believes the democratic emphasis is a key reason IkamvaYouth achieves the results it does. According to Olivier, the democratic process leads directly to genuine collective ownership and community support. “This youth-centred decision-making model has effectively enabled the beneficiaries of the project to become its leaders and in the process, IkamvaYouth is building the leadership capacities of these young individuals through exposure to value-based democratic deliberations.” She adds, “It can only be good for this country’s democracy for young people to be actively involved in democratic structures and achieving the success IkamvaYouth achieves through this manner of engagement. It is therefore particularly gratifying to be included on the Worldblu List of the “World’s Most Democratic Workplaces” because democracy is not just something we do at IkamvaYouth, it is who we are.”
Alongside IkamvaYouth on the Worldblu List of the “World’s Most Democratic Workplaces” is the Fortune 500 company Davita and a number of other well-known democratically structured companies and organisations including Zappos.com, HCL Technologies, New Belgium Brewery, Great Harvest Bread Company and WD-40. Organisations from across the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Malaysia, Haiti, India, New Zealand and Singapore made this year’s WorldBlu List from a diverse range of industries including, technology, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, services and energy. The organisations range in size from five to 90,000 employees representing over $17 billion in combined annual revenue.
According to WorldBlu founder and CEO, Traci Fenton, this is the most global WorldBlu List to date which reflects an increasing movement towards democracy in how we organise ourselves and find ways to relate better to one another. “WorldBlu-certified organisations model how democracy unleashes human potential and builds highly successful organisations that change the world for the better.
Fenton continues, “We are especially delighted to have IkamvaYouth on the WorldBlu List this year as the first WorldBlu-certified organistion in South Africa and Africa. The youth represent the future of Africa and our world, which makes this especially inspiring. We hope African leaders will take note of IkamvaYouth impressive example and find ways to implement elements of its democratic model in organisations across the continent.”
Regional Coordinator, Andrew Barrett, adds that it goes deeper too, “We sometimes forget that democracy at both a broader political and narrower organsational level is not something that just happens on its own but requires careful cultivation and deliberate attention. To borrow an idea from Terry Tempest Williams, although we often see ‘democracy’ as something somehow ‘out-there’ and beyond us, the truth is that democracy ultimately begins in the human heart. If our democratic engagement is not rooted in the core human values of love, truth and justice then it becomes a very blunt instrument indeed.”
Democracy necessarily requires a high level of collaboration which itself requires an equally high level of caring and trust and because of this, IkamvaYouth dedicates a considerable amount of time and energy into creating a conducive environment for grassroots-directed democracy. This not only offers lessons in contemporary engagement in South Africa’s bigger social issues but also enables young people to engage with the rich heritage of this country’s past and craft their own response. Barrett concludes, “The overwhelming sense you get from everyone involved with IkamvaYouth – whether they are staff, volunteers, parents or learner beneficiaries – is a collective sense of pride in the organisation, and pride not just in what IkamvaYouth achieves but most notably in what IkamvaYouth is and represents.”
It must surely be true that the more young people there are actively involved in value-based democratic initiatives, the brighter the future of South Africa’s own democratic future and aspirations.
Marking the Occasion
To mark IkamvaYouth’s inclusion in the list of the “World’s Most Democratic Workplaces”, the IkamvaYouth branches in Gauteng are running a competition for learners and volunteers to submit a response to the question, “What does democracy mean to me?” Learners will be writing essays or employing other creative means at their branches on 10 April 2012 and will be presenting to the group on Saturday, 14 April 2012. Media enquiries or visits to any of our branches on either of these days is widely welcomed.
About the WorldBlu Accreditation Process:
Companies and organisations become eligible for a spot on the WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™ only after its employees complete the WorldBlu Scorecard™, an assessment evaluating their organisation’s practice of the WorldBlu 10 Principles of Organizational Democracy™, with an overall combined score of 3.5/5 or higher. The WorldBlu Scorecard™ was developed based on a decade of research into what makes a world-class democratic company. Organisations from the for-profit and non-profit sectors that have been in operation for at least one full year and have five or more employees can apply for WorldBlu certification.
For more on the 10 Principles: http://worldblu.com/democratic-design/principles.php
View the full WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces™ 2012 and read more unique best practices from this year’s list at http://worldblu.com/awardee-profiles/2012.php.
About WorldBlu
WorldBlu has offices throughout the US and UK and specializes in organizational democracy and freedom-centered leadership, with organizational and individual members in over 70 countries worldwide. Founded in 1997, WorldBlu’s vision is to see one billion people working in free and democratic workplaces. For more information about WorldBlu, visit the website at http://www.worldblu.com.
This Tuesday, on 10 April 2012, IkamvaYouth will be announcing some exciting news that is a first for any organisation or company in South Africa. In fact, it is a first for any organsiation or company in the whole of Africa. We’re strictly forbidden from letting you know what it is until then but once the official announcement is made you can be sure that you will be the first to know. Log on to the IkamvaYouth website early on Tuesday morning for the full details.
Clue: It’s an award that is very closely linked to one of our CORE values, and relates not just to WHAT we do at IkamvaYouth but also HOW we do these things as IkamvaYouth.
Can you guess what it is about?
On the weekend of 31 March and 1 April IYKZN hosted it’s 2nd SPW at the Chesterville branch. We had the priviledge of being joined by our National Coordinator Zamo Shongwe and our Director and Co-Founder Joy Olivier, who was also present at last years SPW. Excitement and enrgy filled the centre as we were joined by tutors from both our branches – Umlazi and Chesterville. Unlike last year where the SPW took place after one of our Saturday School sessions, we had a full 2 days to spend planning 2012 and going over 2011 with those that joined during the year as well as addressing ways of improvement that could be implemented.
A mixture of new and old tutors gave us a chance to discuss the growth of IYKZN over the years and all our achievements till now. New tutors and learner reps got a chance to contribute their thoughts and participate in an active conversation about IY’s plans for 2012 while learning from those who have been present over the years. This meant that most of day 1 was spent around understanding IY and our mission and values as well as recognising our achievements. New members also had the chance to contribute towards our budget, enforcing our open door policy to all those present.
Day 2 began with our previous Branch Comm going through each of their portfolios and the success of 2011 within each portfolio. Thereafter we had a chance to listen to motivations by group members who were present and interested in forming 2012’s new Branch Comm. Which was very heartwarming as a few learner reps also stood up and shared their interests. Though there are now 2 branches, seems like both Branch Comms are a passionate group of people who are committed to passing forward love and knowledge to all future Ikamvanites. Overall, our SPW was a great success filled with love and laughter as we used fun and games to bond and shared our thoughts in an inviting circle of acceptance filled with individuals with a common love and goal for Ikamva KZN. To LIFT AS YOU RISE!!
Follow the link to read the full report: strategic_planning_weekend_report_-_kzn.pdf
Lloyd Lungu