People speak of our IkamvaYouth in Makhaza as being a beacon of hope and light in the community, a safe place for learners to come and learn, a place where people become agents of change in their own lives, a place where learners can be safe from the other factors in their lives. Here gang culture is dissipated, close friendships are formed; people feel like they belong.
So when the news that Mphumzi Klaas was murdered came though one Sunday morning in June it shattered all of us and everything we believed about in Ikamva was shaken to the very core. Our best friend, confidante, our rock in unsteady times was lost to us forever.
And yet, life needed to go on, winter school started the very next day, and so with 150 people balancing grieving and all the high energy that comes with winter school we decided a fitting memorial needed to made, in a place where Ikamva can show the community we may be down but not out. We would all rise out of this and remember Mphumzi though the way he lived his life, his values and love for people, making sure that he lives on through all of us. He embodied a true ikamvanite lived his life with the values of Ikamva at his core.
Today he was memorialised on our wall of our office not only for everyone at Ikamva to see but everyone in the community to know IkamvaYouth is bigger than any one person, bigger than anything we could ever imagine, that no mater what happens we go on and only get stronger.
Big up to Ricky, Veronica and Vumanizumu!! We LOVE it! Your incredible talent in portraying Mphumzi brings back memories we thought were lost to us forever..
By Liesel Bakker
It’s been hard to ignore these past few weeks the coverage at Chris Hani High School in Makhaza involving a brutal attack leaving Malibongwe Melani, a grade 12 student, severely injured in hospital. (See articles in the
Voice of the Cape and
Cape Argus) Students are feeling very embittered with school life, the dysfunctional state of the school and the powerlessness of feeling unsafe in the very place they’re supposed to be learning and developing. A small group of students vented these frustrations in a very destructive way, making fires, throwing desks, rocks, sticks and other objects off the 2nd floor school building, at the principal, police and whoever was unfortunate enough to be in their path, shutting the school and disrupting scheduled exams.
However our amazing Ikamvanites are not letting this huge disruption to their exam period and school life get in their way of being the agents of change in their lives and of their friends. The Grade 11’s from Chris Hani came to us asking for extra physics classes to catch up not only the 12 weeks of work they missed by not having a teacher as well as the 2 weeks of disruption to their regular school day. So today, while the sun is blazing and their friends are all playing soccer in the road, they are instead sitting in our office learning about lenses and light with practical examples taught by our newest volunteering ikamvanite, retired UCT lecturer
Prof John Greene.
These learners are really inspirational not only to other Ikamvanites but to their friends as well as the small group of destructive students. These are truly learners making the impossible happen for themselves, showing the others how no one can stand in the way of being the change in their lives.
Well done Ikamvanites, and Big Up to Prof John Greene!!
Last Wednesday 80 Ikamvanites had the chance to come face to face with a NASA astonaught – Dr Catherine Coleman, and to learn first hand about her experiences living and working in space. They were shown what life is like at zero gravity, see what the earth looks like from space and learn about the skills needed to become an astonaught. It was an amazing opportunity for our Ikamvanites to be a part of the Living Maths World Space Week event.
They even had an opportunity to talk to her and take a few pictures..
IkamvaYouth and EwB joined hands to build future Mathematicians. Knowing that pass rates are low in mathematics at grade 12, a closer look has been taken to understand why learners perform so badly in maths. One of the major points that came up is the foundation of mathematics; maths is like ladder: you can’t jump one step and expect not to fall. Without understanding grade 8-level maths it makes it difficult to fully grasp grade 9 maths and the chain continues to grade 12. For example, with some learners, it’s not that they don’t understand the trigonometry, but it’s the fraction within the trigonometry with which they’re struggling and leads them to get the math wrong. Yes We Can Maths provides the platform to understanding these basics through the yellow and green books at grade 8 level; they start at the basic core of mathematics Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division. From there the books provide opportunities for learners to practice applying all of those skills to complex maths like fractions, exponents, etc.
This being basic mathematics, most learners they don’t think they need it due to the use of calculators. However, once one starts to challenge learners about how much they are depending on calculators, they realise that they don’t even know the methods of solving simple multiplication. Through this project we are tearing down a fundamental problem of mathematics education in South Africa.
Some highlights and challenges from the learners’ perspective, we asked couple of questions: How do they feel about the books? Is there anything would like to change about the class or tutor? And do you think the books are helping in your school work?
“To me the books are not easy at the same time not it’s not difficult, because some of activities are easy but some of them it’s hard to understand so I am in between.”
“There is nothing I want to change about the class it’s alright and my tutor Nicholas does a perfect job.”
“It was helping on term 1 but now it does not, because now we are doing equations in school and that book it’s no fractions so it’s not helping much. I would like the book to change to book 2 to have equation solving for x, expression and exponents”
“I feel very excited when I see the books, it’s because it helps me very much. It’s easy to understand all the equations in the book.”
It has been wonderful having these grade 8 learners join IkamvaYouth. In addition to the EWB project they have also been exposed to English tutoring and the full range of holiday programme activities.
Thank you to EWB for enabling us to work with these learners.
Ikamvanites were excited to learn about marine life during winter school workshops on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, volunteers from the Two Oceans Aquarium taught learners about marine careers and sustainability of ocean resources. Learners also got to hold and learn about starfish, sea anemones, and sea urchins. On Thursday, learners had the opportunity to visit the Two Oceans aquarium, where they explored life in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Learners have expressed an interest in pursuing careers in marine biology after the visit.
A Special Thanks to Two Oceans volunteers.
Mphumzi Klaas passed away on 26 June. Ikamvanites are grieving for this amazing colleague, tutor, mentor and friend. Mphumzi has been integral to IkamvaYouth since he joined in 2005, while doing grade 11. He has since fulfilled various important roles at the Makhaza branch, and has been an inspiration and friend to hundreds of ikamvanites. When introducing himself to visitors, he’d proudly say that he does “a little bit of everything” at IkamvaYouth, and it was true. Besides keeping the Makhaza branch going and consistently aiming higher, Mphumzi was the glue of the Makhaza family with his deep commitment and great sense of humour.
The memorial service is on the 6th of July 2011 at Desmond Tutu Hall. It will start at 17:30 until 19:00. Click here for the directions from town, and contact me direct 0789929269 if you get lost.
The funeral is on 9 June at Solomon Mahlangu Hall, next to Harry Gwala High School / Kuyasa train station. It will start at 9:30am until 12o’clock.
Lloyd Lungu