Dear IkamvaYouth’s incredible tutors and mentors,
You are the key to IkamvaYouth’s success; you embody the spirit of IkamvaYouth and have proven that volunteerism is in fact sustainable and scalable.
Thank you for your inspiring dedication and for being a tremendous example to our learners, and the country at large.
Without you we would not be able to help as many learners as we do. We hugely appreciate the sacrifices you make when you give up your time to tutor, mentor or to help us in other ways.
We want to thank you with this message as our personal round of applause. The credit for our work rests with our dedicated volunteers:
It is you who inspire and enable our learners to achieve these amazing results. You guys are also our BIGGEST benefactors.
We hope to see you continue to lift as you rise and wish you all the very best in everything that you do.
Thank you!
The 2013 IkamvaYouth Annual Report highlights the remarkable achievements that we have made in 2013 by enabling disadvantaged youth to pull themselves and each other out of poverty with education.You can view the full annual report here but here are some of the highlights from 2013:
- 92% of our learners passed their matric (including supplementary exams); 62% achieved a bachelor pass (compared to 30.6% nationally) and 90% of our learners accessed a post school opportunity (tertiary, learnership or employment);
- The first survey of IkamvaYouth’s alumni was conducted. The findings were more encouraging than we could have hoped: IkamvaYouth learners are almost half as likely to drop out of tertiary studies, four times more likely to graduate and are three times less likely to not be in education or employment than the average South African young person.
- IkamvaYouth WON the Stars Award which exists to reward outstanding local organisations improving the lives of children in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. IkamvaYouth WON in the category of Education in Africa and the Middle East.
Thank you for taking the future into your hands, and to holding ours. Let’s keep reaching for the stars together.
©Neo Ntsoma/Majority World
If you are having trouble with the link please click on the below link:
ikamvayouth_annual_report_2013.pdf
It wasn’t too long ago that women were barred from political, legal and economic rights. Thankfully, many positive strides have been made to empower women and African women have become an economic force to be reckoned with.
Joy Olivier, the founder and director of IkamvaYouth, was nominated as a finalist in The Most Influential Woman in Business and Government award. There were 9000 nominations from 31 African countries showing how popular this award is throughout Africa. Recently, she was eventually handed the award of the Most influential Woman in South Africa and the SADC region in the category of Welfare and Civil Society Organisations.
The whole event organised by CEO Communications recognises Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government and aims to sustainably celebrate and uplift women who are making a contribution to their communities and economies across the African continent. These awards were seeking someone who is not just doing their job but also someone who is a role model. Their initiatives have evolved into the Most Influential Women in Business and Government programme, which has been recognised over the course of several years as the pre-eminent recognition platform for women.
We applaud Joy for such an amazing achievement. Keep up the great work Joy! IkamvaYouth and Africa celebrates with you!
Each year, Mail and Guardian selects 200 young South African leaders that they identify as playing an important role on South Africa’s future. The Mail & Guardian, through its 200 Young South Africans project, paints a picture of where South Africa is going as a country. The people selected each year come from across all sections of society and epitomize the best that South Africa has to offer.
Nyasha Zvomuya has been identified as one of these 200 Young South African’s for 2014 under the category of Education for her work in the education revolution in South Africa. We are proud to have our very own Ikamvanite being showcased for impacting education through the work they are doing at IkamvaYouth.
This shows us all that vision 2030 can truly be a reality and that through hard work, we can surely reach the stars!
Congratulations Nyasha!
All the planning and emphasising that occurred months and days prior to the commencement of our 1st winter school allowed everything to transpire into a good and effective effort for the Mamelodi Branch. I say good because, for one, as emphasised and reiterated during winter school, learners now know that you’re never your best, secondly one should always strive to achieve better and for our winter school that existed in more ways than one.
With less than 90 learners attending our winter school, it became evident that only smooth sailing would prevail. That coupled with commitment and plain old hard work proved to allow effectiveness to be the order of the day.
Our winter school was held at the University of Pretoria, Hatfield campus. We were hosted with warmth and the learners thoroughly enjoyed the experience. With the learners having never been to an established academic institute of that scale, the experience unlocked their eyes and minds to a new sphere of possibilities. Yes, the point of it all was to expose and make them aware of what could possibly be their tertiary institute and playground one day with the understanding in mind that that can be achieved through hard work and commitment.
Therefore our winter school wasn’t about the daily routine of the 8am to 4pm program; it was about ensuring that learners leave with the confidence and understanding in mind that it starts with self. A lot of activities and workshops that occurred during winter school were aligned with the course of developing our learner’s leadership skills, level of awareness, valuing self and importantly raising awareness of the social issues that affect youth and the preventative actions that are available to them.
We had a number of facilitators, speakers and organisation’s that assisted us in realising the idea that was our first winter school. They all felt at home and spoke of returning to the branch during the year to do a number of workshops or awareness campaigns with our learners once again. With the way everything played out, our winter school seemed to have been an introductory platform in enabling our learners to become the learners we are shaping and assisting them to become. As the year proceeds, we will continue to keep the energies on a high and continue to emphasise what needs to be emphasised to further allow growth and excellence in the branch. As the days passed and smooth sailing prevailing, our winter school was burgeoning with high levels of energy and comradery that only an effective team effort can produce. We all valued it.
There are no limits in life, however when the ineffectiveness and technicalities of the environment you find yourself in fails you, it becomes a tough task and ask to rise up to the challenge when you haven’t learned how to. With our tutors predominantly residing in township based homes and understanding the happenings that hinder ones progress, it became evident that their task as volunteers does not only end in the tutoring space. Our volunteers took it upon themselves to guide, mentor and emphasise all along what we have been saying to the learners, which is; my future is in my hands and that everything starts with self.
The 2 weeks of our winter school allowed and caused a positive paradigm shift in our learners and volunteers. In any learning environment, a sense of comfort and ease needs to be prevalent, this then enables learners to raise questions and seek answers, become more of themselves and most notably to understand that they must excel for themselves first and therefore enabling others to do the same. Not too bad for our first effort of winter school as a branch!
On the morning of Friday the 4th of July, the 5th day of our first ever annual winter school as the Mamelodi branch; was the day we took our learners and volunteers for an excursion at Freedom Park. The day started with the excited learners and tutors being ushered into the bus heading to Freedom Park.
Upon arrival everyone received wrist bands for entrance to Freedom Park. A tour guide, by the name of Gift; was assigned to us for the day and addressed everyone and set out the basic rules that had to be followed during the tour.
Freedom Park was established to capture human dignity, rights and freedom and reflects the sacrificial achievements of the nation. Learners were excited and willing to learn about their own history and understand the extent to which liberation was attained in South Africa.
The tour started with the ikamvanites visiting S’ikhumbuto, one of the elements in the Freedom Park, which includes a Wall of Names as a remembrance of the fallen heroes of the struggle, an Amphitheatre, an Eternal flame, a Gallery of leaders and a Sanctuary. The next element that was visited was Moshate; which functions as an exhibition space for designs of the various kingdoms in the South Africa landscape. Learners then visited Mveledzo which is a spiral path, Uitspanplek a space which showed the view of the scenic Pretoria CBD area, which also overlooks the Voortrekker Monument and UNISA University.
Amongst other wonderful elements the learners visited was Tiva, a large body of water, which symbolises peace, Sivivane which symbolises a resting place for those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle. The Sivivane includes a symbolic burial ground, which is surrounded by 11 boulders known as Leshaka; all these boulders were taken from all the 9 provinces around the country. What’s also included in Sivivane is a body of water at both entrances for baptism and drinking and Umlahlankosi trees.
During the tour, learners asked questions and were intrigued by the diverse cultures and history that South Africa holds. The highlight of the tour was when the ikamvanites visited IIhapo which told a story about the beginning of life in Africa and how it impacted the rest of the world and the Pan African archives.
It was definitely a day that changed the learner’s outlook on being an African and all that this country had to overcome in order to be as privileged as it is today.
One of our learners had this to say:”I will now be able to understand the history subject more in class because I visited Freedom Park. Thanks to IY for taking us to Freedom Park and to Freedom Park for the experience”- Grade 10 learner.
From IkamvaYouth Mamelodi, we say thank you to Freedom Park for having us 🙂!!!
Lloyd Lungu