By Philiswa Ntoyini
Once again it has been that time of the year when prizes were given to students who were committed to their studies through IkamvaYouth. On the 28th of November 2015, Masiphumelele Branch had fun and celebrated their year-end at the prize giving. The event started at 09:45 on Saturday morning and it was well attended by learners, parents, tutors, Mr Swarts the guest speaker and the IkamvaYouth staff.
Learners get motivated by people who have been through the same phase as they are in, the guest speaker even mentioned that they should invest on their time, they should have dreams with visions and put some actions into it. Not only learners but everyone who attended could use these words in order to achieve successful goals.
Certificates were given to learners who obtained between 75% and 100% of attendance as an evidence as to how committed they were and these learners survived kick outs. Some learners received certificates of excellence for different achievements such as learner of the year, Book Club participation, and English improvement with the FUNdamentals programme.
Tutors were appreciated for their effortless time spent at IkamvaYouth throughout the year helping other learners to improve on their studies.
Most of the tutors were learners at Ikamva, after finishing their matric they came back as tutors. Tutors received IkamvaYouth nice designed hoodies.
It was good to see learners achieving, an achievement does not have to be something big in order to be regarded as an achievement.
Saturday 21st November was the last Parents’ meeting of the year at the Masiphumelele branch.
Besides reporting on learners’ numbers, attendance, kick-outs and extra-murals, we presented the prospects for 2016.
In fact, the Computer Literacy programme will be implemented since January. In order to build learners’ ability to communicate in English, the Book Club, the English FUNdamentals and the preparation for the ANAs will also be run next year.
Regarding the Grade 11s and 12s the focus of the meeting was on liaising with the parents to organise next year learners’ support around the mentoring programme and tertiary application process. Some Grade 11s (see attached picture) came to present their career aspirations through their Vision Boards.
As the learner number will increase from 95 learners to 119 in Masi next year, we also called for recruiting learners and tutors.
Finally 2 parents have been nominated and chosen to be Parent’s representatives for 2016.
We are all ready for the new year!!
As can be seen in our
Annual Report 2014 was the year of growth for us: our matric class was 63% bigger than the previous year, we reached over 1,700 learners and we opened our tenth branch. But let’s not forget why we are here, for most of South Africa’s children, the only way out of poverty is through education. Ikamvanites (IkamvaYouth learners) continue to prove that anyone and everyone – irrespective of the school one attends and the socio-economic status of one’s parents can achieve his dreams and escape poverty.
Please read more in our 2014 annual report about the innovation of our model, why we need more Ikamvanites, hear from the Ikamvanites themselves and why our three largest donors of 2014 (Omidyar Network, Amalgamated Beverage Industries and Capitec Foundation) continue to support us.
It is thanks to these donors and many others that we have been able to achieve the results that we have over the last 12 years. South Africa’s future rests on the success of our children. IkamvaYouth is fundraising to reach even more of South Africa’s children in 2016 and needs your support. Please contact me if you would like to discuss supporting IkamvaYouth or find out more about us.
On the 07 February 2015, we had an amazing turnout from parents and learners; the hall was packed to capacity where there was a distinct feeling of excitement and hope for the year. 50 learners and 35 parents attended the event.
We presented IkamvaYouth programs and values to our new learners and their parents. We assisted to a genuine sharing of experiences through the comments and questions of the parents. And thanks to both speeches of Phumza Kibi and Thulisa Myeki.
We also have our first meeting with grade 12’s parents to prepare for 2015; the meeting was successful and we got full participation from parents and learners.
We are happy to announce that on the 07 February 2015 we already registered 52 new learners and we have issued out quite a lot of application forms during the Open Day. We are now looking at a total of 106 learners who have registered with IkamvaYouth Masiphumelele this year.
We are still looking at recruiting 5 Grade 9’s, 20 Grade 10’s, and as for Grade 11’s we only taking learners for waiting list now. Grade 12’s we have 24 for the year 2015.
The Masiphumelele Branch will officially be starting its Home-work session on Monday 9 February 2015 at 15:30 until 17:30. We look forward to host this day.
Let me extend a warm appreciation to all those who have assisted us during the Open Day and let’s keep it up guys, work has begun!
Even it was a hot and sunny day during the weekend, 15 Grade 12 learners made it to the Cape Town International Convention Centre by train on Saturday 31 Januay.
They spent 21/2 hours in the different aisles of the exhibition to discover new industries and jobs. Hair dressers, mechatronics engineers, welders, air-conditioning technicians, chefs, plumbers were showcasing their work and welcomed the students to ask questions and experienced their profession.
Simultaneously the students were invited to meet recruitment officers from False Bay College, Northlink College, Damelin and other FET colleges.
They also watched videos dealing with the artisan industry from the Merseta bus here for the event. You can consult their website which is proposing career guidance through tests, articles and videos by clicking here.
Even though it was a hot and sunny day during the weekend, 15 Grade 12 learners made it to the Cape Town International Convention Centre by train on Saturday 31 Januay for the National Skills Show.
They spent 21/2 hours in the different aisles of the exhibition to discover new industries and jobs. Hair dressers, mechatronics engineers, welders, air-conditioning technicians, chefs, plumbers and other were showcasing their work and welcomed the students to ask questions and experienced their profession.
Simultaneously the students were invited to meet recruitment officers from False Bay College, Northlink College, Damelin and other FET colleges.
They also watched videos dealing with the artisan industry from the Merseta bus here for the event. You can consult their website which is proposing career guidance through tests, articles and videos by clicking here.
Lloyd Lungu