On the 30th of March 2012 IkamvaYouth learners from Nyanga had an awesome educational day facilitated by Andisiwe Wenani from Lovelife.
LoveLife’s youth programmes are structured activities and strategies that are designed to get South Africa talking about HIV and its underlying sexual dynamics, Inspire young people towards an HIV-free future and prepare them to cope with high-risk transitions, specifically school leaving, by building their sense of identity, purpose and belonging. Enable young people to understand the risk of HIV, decide that risk is not worth taking, and equip them with skills to avoid the risk. Develop personal enterprise and resilience and build an immediate and real sense of possibility by creating new links to opportunity. Expand the range of possibilities available to young people and build a sense of collective solidarity. Tackle social and structural inequality and strengthen institutional support aimed at the development of youth and the prevention of HIV and Aids among youth.
The workshop was mainly informative but also focused on participation. The learners had a huge input by asking lots of questions about Lovelife programmes and activities that will be implemented during the course of the year by Love Life with Nyanganites.
With a huge variety of programmes, learners showed a great deal of interest and excitement. What mostly triggered the learners was the mentioning of starting up a debateteam. Nopinki Mba a Nyanganite said “Being part of a debate team would help me to be able to speak in front of many people and to give me courage in taking a stand on what I have facts about”.
Big thanks to Lovelife for the time and an opportunity to equip Nyanganites about life and giving them skills so that they would be wise decision makers.
This will be an on-going workshop until all programmes are completed by Nyanganites then after the completion of the programmes there will be certificates handed out by Lovelife to all those who participated in all programmes.
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… 🙂
One of Makhaza’s tutors was lucky enough to be involved with Dance4Life and RedZebra Foundation which uses creative facilitation techniques, dialogue tools, bottom up processes as well as music and rhythm to deliver powerful experiences for the young people. The approach is youth friendly and centered around the notion that
Dance for life is a dynamic international initiative that involves young people; it encourages them to use their voices in stopping the further spread of HIV/AIDS and breaking down the stigma and taboos that surround the pandemic. Its approach covers all aspects of popular youth culture: media, language, icons music and especially dance. Dance is a universal language and through Dance4life young people dance with a cause. During the Schools4Life project (visiting schools and run workshops), which is the heart of the concept, they acquire the knowledge and life skills they need to protect themselves, while motivated to inform their peers and take action to improve young people reproduction health and rights.
By involving youth, it’s possible to change not only their behavior but also to mobilize them to create social change in their communities so that others change their behavior and perceptions as well. Dance4Life strives to empower young people to unleash their leadership potential, including young people living with HIV.
Ayanda Sawulisi, a past IkamvaYouth learner at the Makhaza branch, now a committed tutor participated for the week’s training and has this to say, ‘Well I got involve in the Dance4life project via Ikamva Youth. I got interested in the program because I love to work with young people and being the person that I am who is involved in the entertainment industry, I believe that I can use my skills and elevate dance4life project to new heights.
I also joined because Dance4life’s tool of getting the message across is very unique and inclusive ways though dance, music, spoken word etc which are my areas of interest. The training was great; it was very informative in terms of leadership skills and how to run workshops. It was full of energy, skills exchanging and creativity. Most of all I enjoyed to learn the dance which was the core element of the program and I was blessed to be amongst individuals who are very talented and who are in the virtue of becoming young leaders. The dance will help me in a way that I will be able to teach others but most of all to teach them the message behind the dance and it also help in terms of fitness/health because you sweat very much!’
Big up to Peter Schaupp and RedZebra Foundation for the opportunity!
COMPUTER LITERACY TRAINING
IkamvaYouth’s Grade 10 learners with no previous experience of computers were introduced to the world of IT through Operation Fikelela, our context-specific introductory computer literacy training curriculum. The group will continue the lessons through the rest of the year.
Lloyd Lungu