Do you know what you want to do after Matric?
This is a hard decision, one that requires a lot of information and careful consideration, but IkamvaYouth and Equal Education are here to help. We would like to invite you to our 2012 Careers Indaba.
Come join us on the 14 September 2012 in the Zolani Centre in Nyanga (across the road from the Nyanga bus and taxi rank), and is open to grades 8-12.
Address:
The Zolani Centre,
Sithandatu Avenue,
Nyanga
7750
Directions to Zolani Centre
From Cape Town city centre:
Get on to the N2 toward the Cape Town Airport and Somerset West.
At junction 18 take right on to Borcherds Quarry Road (signposted to Nyanga/M22)
Follow this road down to the T- junction at the taxi rank and take a left on to Sithandatu Avenue
The Zolani Centre is on your left immediately and you can turn into the car park straight after the first set of robots.
The purpose of the Careers Indaba is to expose you to new opportunities, provide information about various study options, learnerships and volunteer programs, resources and support structures. In addition the Careers Indaba will offer workshops on CV writing, interview techniques and personal development. These are skills you will need wherever your path takes you!
Why should I come?
Whether you want to continue your studies, start working; find out about on the job training these choices require information and planning. Alternatively do you want to apply for a volunteer program or internship? It is important to start investigating your options now. At the Careers Indaba you will be able to talk directly to the people who are there to guide you in the right direction.
What are my options?
1/ Continue your studies: Do you want to become a teacher, doctor, electrician, scientist, a lawyer, hairdresser, accountant or nurse? All these positions require you to study further. At the Careers Indaba you will be able to discuss your options for universities, colleges, and Further Education Training (FET colleges)
2/ Working & on-the-job training: Do you want to make your own way and be an entrepreneur? Find our what it involves running your own business or learn while working through learnership programmes. At the Careers Indaba you will be able to find out about these options.
3/Volunteering, Internships and Gap Year Programmes: Do you want to spend some time deciding what your next step is, or getting to know yourself and the world about you a little better? Do you want to give back to your community or volunteer and gain valuable experience in a specific field? The Careers Indaba will give you the opportunity to find out more about this.
Spread the word, looking forward to seeing you all there!
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
Tuesday 24 July was an exciting day for the Ebony Park learners as they continued in the spirit of Mandela Month by giving back to their community. “Charity begins at home,” most learners said, whilst they decided on where exactly in the community they would spread the Mandela Month spirit.
Our Ikamvanites decided to give back by going to a Nursery School called Mission House located on the same premises as IkamvaYouth. The afternoon was filled with different activities including cleaning the house, decorating and painting the play areas. The principal of the School, Mrs Lindiwe Nxusa, was so overwhelmed with gratitude that all she could do was hug everyone close to her. She has encouraged our Ikamvanites to continue with all the great work.
Mandela Day is a call to action for individuals – for people everywhere – to take responsibility for changing the world into a better place, one small step at a time, just as Mr Mandela did. We are all determined to play our part in making South Africa a better place for all.
The cool kids on the block, Nyanga and Makhaza got their mascara and trendy threads out at winter school for a collaboation with Live Magazine.
Have a look here at a behind the scenes look at what happened when our stylish fashionistas got their hands on cameras and were let loose to scout locations around UCT for the perfect shot.
[Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHk6_v0n02Y&feature=relmfu]
They have also uploaded some of the stories writed that week on the Live magazine mobile channel.
Huge thanks to Nkuli, Julia and the Live Magazine team for such awesome workshops!
Some day we may be mining our landfills for the resources we’ve buried. A scary fact presented to the learners of IY’s Chesterville on their Operation Clean Up which was
held on the morning of Thursday, 28 June.
This was a new initiative piloting in Winter School in an aide to get our learners to give
back to the community that they’ve grown up in ( majority if our learners either attend
school within the Chesterville area and/or live within the area – or surroundings )
Durban Solid Waste and Ethekwini Municipality’s Parks and Recreation played a
major role in making this day possible. Thursdays activities started with the learners
taking a walk through the Education & Waste Minimisation Mobile Training Centre –
a bus which travels around various schools and communities within the municipalities
educating society about waste management and recycling through joint collaborations
between the municipality, Engen and the Association of Waste Management.
Mr Njebo, who is in KwaZulu Natal’s head office of Waste Management delivered a talk
about recycling and gave learners ideas on household waste they can recycle.
After all this, learners and tutors were separated into various groups and it was time to
walk around Chesterville to help clean up the community. DSW kindly sponsored gloves
as well as plastic bags which we would use to collect all the waste we found along our
way.
Our first stop was the local hospice where learners cleaned outside the premises, the yard
and gardens. Thereafter we took a walk down towards the St Anthony’s Church’s mission amidst
the support and cheers of local community members.
Arriving at the mission, we were greeted by a Parks and Recreation truck which was
there to deliver the tools sponsored by the department which would be used to clean up
the yard.
Once again learners were separated into groups and cleaned around the yard of the
mission as well as clearing the yard of weeds.
Learners enjoyed clearing up the garden and we are looking forward to hopefully return
to plant a few vegetables for the abused and abandoned women and children which this
mission houses.
After our Operation Clean Up, Chesterville learners returned to DUT for academic
tutoring. At this time, Umlazi learners, who had started the morning in the classroom,
began their Operation Clean Up with a presentation from Zanele, from the DSW
education department. The presentation focused on various aspects such as awareness of
pollution, waste management, different disposal areas in KZN and what effect waste has
on the environment.
Zanele futher empasised the importance of “the 3 Rs” (Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle), in
combating the negative impact waste has on the environment.
Another important aspect which they touched on was the illegal dumping of waste
especially by our households when they miss the scheduled time of the municipal truck
picking up waste in the neighborhood.
After the insightful presentation, learners were taken to the beach, not to swim, but to
give back to their environment, by cleaning up the litter in the area.
Having Joy Olivier ( co-founder of IkamvaYouth ) and Zamo Shongwe ( IY’s National Coordinator ) join
The clean-up was an added treat for the learners. The amount of litter collected in the
few minutes that the learners were there (just under 30 minutes) was a real eye opener.
Learners really got to see just how bad the issue of pollution on our beaches actually is.
We hope that this is the start of a great initiative and that learners will be able to use all
the knowledge that they gained about taking care of their environment, within their daily
lives.
IkamvaYouth’s 2011 Annual Report is out and available here for download!
Many thanks to our super-talented designer Lynne Stuart, to Julia de Kadt for proofreading, and to everyone who contributed stories, quotes and photos. We love it, and hope that all the readers will too!
Ikamvanites got through some really rough times in 2011: our office was petrol-bombed, a devastating fire in Masiphumelele destroyed 1000s of homes, and learners spent a week rioting after their classmate was badly injured while beaten at school. 2011 was also a year of tragic loss: three heroes (Mphumzi Klaas, Nomzamo Kali and Dave Eadie) all passed away before their time, but not before they’d each made significant contributions to IkamvaYouth and South Africa at large.
There were some good times too: 560 ikamvanites (learners & volunteers) spent their holidays at one of the five winter schools (hosted by TSiBA, UWC, Masi library, DUT and SEF), and 426 learners achieved more than 75% attendance, three times a week, through all four terms. 100 tutors regularly spent their spare time tutoring at the five branches. The ikamvanites’ hard work paid off: 99% of learners in grades 8-11 passed onto the next grade, and 85% of our matrics passed (41% Bachelor, 39% Diploma passes). 69% of matriculants are at tertiary institutions, and 9% are in learnerships and/or employment.
IkamvaYouth’s track record of impressive results has led to some important and exciting attention. We were visited by the Minister of Basic Education (twice!) and mentioned in her budget speech; the Duchess of Cornwall popped in, and Jonathan Jansen inspired our learners at the Masi branch. We were featured in national media including Business Day, SAFM and SABC2 and MNet, made our own Live magazine, went to Slovenia and won a bunch of awards.
A key organisational objective for 2011 was consolidation, and despite the challenges, we’ve managed to achieve this; thanks to the support from our visionary donors. We ran our first-ever national strategic planning week (when many of us met the colleagues with whom we collaborate online on a daily basis in person for the first time); open-sourced our model through the ikamvanitezone (where you’ll find shared information and resources, how-to guides, tools & templates); had an independent evaluation conducted by Servaas van der Berg and his team of education economists, and grew our team.
Over the past year, IkamvaYouth has received 28 requests from communities in all provinces to establish more branches. And after our year of heads-down consolidation, we’re ready to step up and respond. 2012 has seen two new branches established: African- Bank-funded Ivory Park and ABI-funded Umlazi. Next on the horizon are Grahamstown and another two Gauteng branches. We’ve also begun thinking about ways to generate income and sustainably scale expansively, without entirely relying on donor funding in the future.
Ultimately though, IkamvaYouth’s sustainability lies with the ikamvanites. During our first few years, people would often tell us sagely that “initiatives that rely completely on volunteers aren’t sustainable”. We don’t get that anymore. And indeed, ikamvanites have shown that not only is the model sustainable due to the learners becoming tutors, and the tutors being so committed, but that volunteers produce results in contexts where few can.
We invite you to get involved in whatever way, and be a part of the change we need in many more communities throughout the country.
We hope you’ll enjoy the 2011 Annual Report multi-media experience we’ve curated for you, and make the most of the hyperlinks providing detail behind the headlines to youtube clips, blog posts and reports.
Thanks again to every indivdual who played your part in enabling all that was achieved and overcome in 2011, and to those who’re boosting us to ramp it up for 2012!
Lloyd Lungu