Less than two weeks after being heralded in the Minister of Basic Education’s Budget Speech, IkamvaYouth’s head office in Makhaza, Khayelitsha was petrol-bombed.
“I thought I was going to die” said Mpumzi Klaas, an ex-learner who has been volunteering as a tutor and mentor since 2007.
“We had just taken our learners on an excursion to Ratanga Junction to enjoy Freedom Day, and five minutes after they left the office someone threw stones and fire through the window, and the recently-donated Answer Series study guides caught alight.” Mpumzi and Sinethemba Lutango, another ex-learner-turned volunteer who’s currently studying at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), hid under the tables and called the police.
Thankfully they managed to escape unharmed, but were very shocked upon their return to the office this morning where they found that the premises had been further attacked and completely destroyed. The roof is burnt; the computers have melted; all equipment, records and resources reduced to ashes.
IkamvaYouth is a non-partisan, non-governmental organisation that was established in 2003 in Makhaza with the objective of enabling disadvantaged youth to pull themselves out of poverty and into university and employment through peer-to-peer learning and support. The programme’s success (87-100% matric pass rate since 2005 and over 70% of learners accessing tertiary for the past three years) has led to the model’s replication in five townships in three provinces, and numerous accolades include winning the Mail and Guardian / Southern Africa Trust Drivers of Change award in 2010.
IkamvaYouth’s office space is availed to the organisation free of charge by the municipality. In addition to destroying the office, the attackers threw stones into the Nazeema Isaacs Library and torched the adjoining Zimele Pre-Primary school. “We just don’t understand why anyone would do this”, said Monica Nabuya, the principal of Zimele.
Mrs Bidla, who has two grandchildren in grades 9 and 10, says “I cannot begin to express how badly I have been hurt by this. As a parent, I just cannot understand how anyone can do such a bad thing to an organisation that helps our children. IkamvaYouth has kept our children off the streets and helped them focus on their studies.” She has suggested a parents’ meeting “so that we can protect the future of our children”.
“We are trying to free people from poverty and yet on Freedom Day our office was burnt. This means that people do not understand what Freedom Day stands for, and they do not understand that we’re trying to balance disparities and redress injustice”, said Thobela Bixa, an IkamvaYouth board member and ex-learner who’s currently doing his MA in Chemistry at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Mrs Sobethwa whose child is in grade 10 said “You do not expect something like this will happen to an organisation like IkamvaYouth… I believe that there is still hope… the name Ikamva sums it up, the organisation has a brighter future and more good things are going to happen. This is the time we have to stand up as community members and oppose this kind of behaviour”.
“I’m so hurt by all of this. I was looking forward to a great day of tutoring but only to come to this”, said Unathi Gcani, a grade 10 learner who joined Ikamva in 2011.
Unathi continued, “this is going to impact badly on our studies. I blame our community for all this because no one can come from another township to vandalise our resources, how do they expect us to pass when they burn our Answer Series booklets? Against all of this, I am still committed to Ikamva because I have seen the impact it has made to previous learners.”
Contact:
Winile Mabhoko
Makhaza Branch Coordinator
0798854372
winile@ikamvayouth.org
It is a time of triumph for IYKZN. AME Africa health care technologies has donated a fully equipped computer lab to IYKZN. Situated in Chesterville at the Vuyani Nkosi Memorial Youth Center.
The actual lab consists of 20 thin client personal computers, a telephone, a printer and a digital projector.
This is a huge step for IYKZN. We can now conduct proper Operation Fikelela lessons, not just to our lovely learners but also to the community. The youth center also consists of a gym, an art theatre and a counsilling facility. We are set to move in to the youth center on the 1st of April. The whole team was there to view our new IYKZN branch and needless to say we were very excited at the very site of our new lab.The actual center is fully buglar guarded and has 24hr security.
We are very delited to partner with eThekwini Municipality Great Cator Manor Area based management in this great venture. It is quite an exciting opportinity to be able to assist the youth and community as a whole in a way that will benefit them for the future to come. We are really looking forward to the opportunity.
In closing we would like extend great thanks to the Greater Cator Manor Area Based Management office and AME on this venture.
IkamvaYouthKZN : LIFT AS YOU RISE
Matthew Mhlaleki speaks to SABC 2 programme TalkSA about how IkamvaYouth helped him improve his marks and get into university.
When Matthew joined IkamvaYouth he had 45% for maths and 43% for physics and needed to jump at least three symbols to pursue his desire to study engineering in 2011. After two years with IkamvaYouth and countless hours of tutoring and midweek sessions, Matthew achieved Bs in both maths and physics in his final exams.
In recognition of his achievements, he has also been awarded a bursary from Schneider-Electric to study Electrical Engineering at Wits this year.
Watch the clip below for a brief insight into how Matthew and ikamvaYouth made it happen.
[youtube]m3CwUwjumEA[/youtube]
PS. Schneider-Electric also donated kit-bags to our new 2011 IkamvaYouth cohorts in the expectation that there will be many more Matthew-type-stories in the years to come. Once again a big thank you to Schneider-Electric for their continued support.
Today ikamvanites attended a memorial service at UWC to celebrate the life of Nomzamo Kali, who was from the Makhaza Class of 2005.
Nomzamo was a learner at Manyano High School when she became an ikamvanite, and she went on to achieve great things. She enrolled in 2006 at UWC at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, studying information systems. In 2010 she moved on to Honours, and was to become a Masters student in 2011.
Thobela Bixa, an IkamvaYouth board member and classmate of Nomzamos at IkamvaYouth in 2005, gave a heartfelt speech. He urged those in attendance to continue to realise what Nomzamo stood for, and give back to their communities and assist disadvantaged youth to access tertiary education.
University officials appealed to lecturers and students in attendance to continue to strive to produce and be students of Nomzamo’s calibre, and the president of the SRC mourned the nation’s loss of a role model. Nomzamo was not only a high achiever, but also did not wait to give back, and was doing it right from when she left school.
Nomzamo was a talented, beautiful, smart and caring person who inspired many people. IkamvaYouth sends our deep condolences to Nomzamo’s family and friends.
Joe gets his showbiz on with the TalkSA crew.
Be sure to tune your TV sets into SABC 2 on Tuesday at 11AM as Joe and crew from Ivory Park make their TV debuts on Talk SA.
Talk SA is developing content around the theme of Nation Building and features IkamvaYouth in the third segment.
After much careful and considered deliberation Joe is prepared to auction his autograph to the highest bidder. Failing which, if you’d prefer to simply make a donation you can follow the instructions here.
Alternatively, VOLUNTEER!
🙂
Lloyd Lungu