Mandela Day for us the Ikamva learners
Mandela day, 18 July 2013 for us the Ikamva learners was a great opportunity for us to give back and make a change. We, the learners of IkamvaYouth: Chesterville found ourselves going to the AH Zulu Pre-School in Chesterville right opposite the Youth Centre where we attend the after school tutoring sessions. The staff members of the crèche welcomed us warmly and showed us the rooms in which we were going to be painting. We also helped with washing the windows, painting cartoon characters on the crèche wall and draw a lot of lovely pictures for the kids at the crèche to cherish. We really enjoyed ourselves and it was great helping out for more than 67 minutes.
We did this to give back to the community where we the Ikamva learners reside, the same way in which the former president Nelson Mandela gave his life and fought for our freedom. For us, as the learners of IkamvaYouth giving back is very important because we receive everyday by attending at IkamvaYouth. The tutors also take their time to come in and give back by tutoring us learners. So we were also giving back to the crèche and the community. Our loving tutors also came along to assist us with the cleaning and painting.
I am humbled once again by the selfless nature and humility of the man that is Nelson Mandela. He is a true hero of our people. I can only hope that his story will be treasured for future generations because humanity needs more people like Nelson Mandela. May he live long! May the almighty God bless him and give him longer lasting life.
By: Sine Moesha Majozi (Grade 10 Ikamvanite)
On Friday the 26th of July 2013, the KZN team of IkamvaYouth got all dolled up, and headed off to Pietermaritzburg’s Protea Imperial Hotel for the 3rd annual KZN Young Achievers Awards. The purpose of the Young Achiever Awards is to acknowledge, encourage, reward and most importantly promote the positive achievements of KZN youth aged between 16 and 35 years. The prestigious ceremony was attended by the Honourable Pietermaritzburg Mayor, Chris Ndlela, who warmly welcomed everyone to the City of Choice.
The awards recognise the achievements of youth, who are giving back to their communities in the following categories: Arts; Beauty & Fashion; Arts; Agriculture & Rural Initiatives; Science & Technology; Health; Sports; Best Media Initiative; and last but not least, Best Youth Development Organisation, which went to IkamvaYouth.
The award recipients
IkamvaYouth isn’t new to receiving awards, but this one is particularly special to the KZN team, as it is a first for the district. It was really encouraging to receive this award, as it was an acknowledgement of our work in KZN. The award came at a really special time, as the organisation celebrates its 10 year anniversary.
Also receiving awards on the evening, were a number of individuals who are not necessarily considered “young”, but have played a key role in youth development, and made an impact on young people’s lives in KZN and across South Africa. Recipients of these honourary awards were Dr Shabalala of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Zanele Mbokazi of Ukhozi fm, Dr Mthembu of Indoni SA, Dr Ngcobo of Ukuphila Wellness, and Menzi Ngubane of Generations.
Dr Shabalala of Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Menzi Ngubane (aka Sibusiso) of Generations receiving Honourary awards.
Being in a room with so many other young people who are making a difference in the community through their various fields was really encouraging. For IkamvaYouth, it just shows that Vision 2030 is indeed attainable!
Team KZN: The Sky is the limit!
Learners and tutors from both branches joined hands at Ivory Park Lord Khanyile youth centre in favour of the health awareness day organized by the IY Gauteng staff. It was a fun and educational moment as learners eagerly awaited testing in long lines. Tutors, staff and some mentors lead the way by testing first, while also helping to encourage the learners to know their status and take charge of their own lives. The day involved, alongside the regular tutoring sessions, HIV/AIDS talks, counselling and actual testing. With the kind, brave help from SADTU’s health branch workers, assisted by the City of Johannesburg, a dedicated mobile testing team made their way to Ivory Park to come and facilitate this beneficial service to our community. All learners, tutors and staff who volunteered to be tested received the best advice, comfort and help from the health workers and left knowing that should they ever need more information, advice or counselling the were places and people who are more than willing to help. A great day was had by all filled with learning, growing and empowerment.
This year’s Winter School in Gauteng was one with a difference, with the theme 10 Years- My IkamvaYouth, My Future!! Not only were we celebrating IkamvaYouth at 10 years but we were also celebrating all the plans and hopes that we had for this Winter School. For the Winter School 2013 ‘official opening’, we were graced by Anastasia Peters Francis, from the Absa CSI department. Anastasia elaborated on Absa’s commitment to youth empowerment, among other CSI initiatives. She encouraged the learners to give their best, even as Absa believes the IkamvaYouth learners across the country are well able to pass. Absa funded Winter School costs for six IkamvaYouth branches across the country. Concluding with Susan Boyle’s YouTube video, and sharing her story of fighting cancer, she charged the learners not to lose hope, but to become the best that they could be during this Winter School. Excitement filled the hall as learners paid attention to every single word spoken by the Absa representative. Pankie Rapholo, an Ikamvanite who matriculated in 2012, and who is now studying a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Johannesburg told his story on how such programmes as the Winter School had made it possible for him to pass. “Anything is possible,” were the words that came out from both speakers.
The next ten days were managed in an orderly manner with learners starting off their day with either compulsory Maths or English fundamentals. There was a huge presence of tutors who came to support and help the learners. Tutoring took place right until lunch-time and those who were eager to continue after that were given the room to do so whilst food was being served. One of the tutors, Mbali Dlamini, had this to say; “I would rather spend my university vacation with the learners than spend my time sitting on my couch watching TV.”
We were visited by Love Life from the Tembisa Region every afternoon and these representatives would take all the learners through fun youth-minded building activities such as HIV/AIDS Awareness, Body Awareness, Identity, Life Skills, Singing and Dancing. LoveLife’s Making My Move Programme was an action-oriented, personal discovery programme which the learners quickly got hooked to. Making My Move was a young people’s call to action for personal growth and development. The programme took young people through a process of identifying and pursuing opportunities for their own personal growth and development.
We were also visited by Standard Bank on Wednesday the 26th of June as they came to give all our tutors a financial literacy workshop. Financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works in the world: how someone manages to earn or make it, how that person manages it, how he/she invests it and how that person donates it to help others. More specifically, it refers to the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources. Raising interest in personal finance is now a focus of Standard Bank and this was a little way of appreciating our tutors- by availing free personal financial management training.
Our Career Expo was a huge success with many exhibitors spending the day with the Ikamvanites as well as the community at large. Workshops were held out throughout the day and were open to anyone and everyone who was interested in knowing more. Many tertiary institutions availed learners with information on their requirements, and the various study fields. Companies present availed information on what it will take for the learner to be working with them in the years ahead. Absa had a mobile bank to help learners to open bank accounts.
Capitec bank came through on Wednesday the 3rd of July to conduct Financial Skills Workshops with all our Grade 11s and 12s. The learners were exposed to a world that they had never been to before. This information was further pressed onto the learners by Tzu Chi who brought in their representative, Shelton Chadya, who spoke to the learners about saving for tertiary and planning for their educational future. It is evident that IkamvaYouth is a great place to gain knowledge and our learners are more informed to make decisions that will impact the rest of their lives.
The 5th of July was the day the learners all went out for the much awaited for excursion. The day was filled with much fun and excitement as most of the learners had never been outside of Midrand. Freedom Park in Pretoria was the first destination for the day, where the Tour Guides told us that, ” The mandate of Freedom Park was the creation of a memorial and monument that will narrate a story spanning a period of 3.6 billion years through the following seven epochs: Earth, Ancestors, Peopling, Resistance and Colonisation, Industrialisation and Urbanisation, Nationalism and Struggle, Nation Building and Continent Building; as well as the Garden of Remembrance to acknowledge those that contributed to the freedom of the country.” It is also home to the Wall of names – an awe-inspiring structure (697m), inscribed with the names of those who died during eight conflicts within South Africa’s history.
Our last stop of the day was Union Buildings which form the official seat of the South African Government and also houses the offices of the president of South Africa. They have a beautiful park on the premises and that is where we had lunch and gave out our certificates of appreciation and collages to all the tutors.
We want to continue to appreciate all the hard work put into this year’s Winter School. The learners are all very thankful for being given such awesome experiences, and are so grateful to our sponsors, staff and tutors. We look forward to next year!
The last day of winter school is usually a day where everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that everything went well, surpassed the minor challenges that go with winter school and having survived the 2weeks however for the KZN region we had to give it one last push. Last year we hosted a sports day in collaboration with ABI and this year it was decided that we would take it up a notch and have a Health Awareness Day. Once again, ABI came on board and participated on the day, by providing the sporting equipment, drinks, as well as joining in the day’s activities.
The Durban weather was close enough to disappointing everybody involved as the rain had us biting our nails, the hours went on and as we waited for the rain to clear, we decided to have an impromptu talent show and learners began showcasing their talents through artwork presentations, comedy skit, music and poetry all in relation to the winter school theme (My future is my hands) they had been given in their MIE programme they had participated in throughout the 2weeks.
The health awareness day had various organisations come in and provide support, providing information and screening opportunities for various health issues. Sexual health information and HIV testing and counseling was provided by CAPRISA, and general health assessments (blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and BMI) were done by Old Mutual, while eye testing was done by Spec Savers. The learners showed interest and eagerly participated in all of these different services.
The sports aspect of the day was really the big moment for everyone; all learners had been divided into 6 groups, made up by the rainbow colours…well most. Each group was given a plain white t-shirt to design and come up with a war cry that they felt would represent their teams and show excellent team spirit and indeed the war cry’s showcased exactly that. All 6 teams raised the bar each time they were on stage and left us, who were watching, wanting more.
Passion and excitement filled the netball and soccer fields as the different teams all played for a win. Volunteers, ABI staff and learners all cheered their respective teams on. The sports was not only limited to netball and soccer, traditional township games such as amagende, magalobhe and shumpu that the learners grew up playing in the passages of their townships were accommodated for. In the end, irrespective of only one team being winners we all celebrated and danced like winners. The day proved to everybody that come rain or sunshine IY always achieves its objective through partnership and collaboration from everybody involved and that is what team work looks like!
Nyanga Winter School 2013 came to an end on a high note as learners took time to give votes of thanks to the tutors and the workshop facilitators who provided 25 different workshops over the past 10 days.
Week 2 has been abuzz with activity as learners participated in more tutoring in the various school subjects and in more workshops, in Physics and Chemistry, Technology & Engineering, Business & Entrepreneurship, leadership, health and life skills, creative expression, the environment and media & journalism.
Live Magazine spoke to the learners about youth involvement at the magazine. Learners accessed useful career guidance information, namely that they can intern with Live Magazine for a period of 6 months post-Matric, before moving on to either tertiary education or employment. The group also made videos of themselves interviewing one another, which was both a fun and educational activity.
The Physical Sciences learners participated in what has become IYWC’s annual Chemistry experiments workshop at UCT, organised and run by board member, Thobela Bixa. The young chemists did a workshop on temperature and the rate of reaction, with the assistance of their tutors, who helped them throughout the process.
ERM also came and did a stimulating workshop on how to conserve the environment. Learners made colourful green-charts where they outlined their unique understanding on conserving the natural environment.
Werner Myburgh of Sunstep Technologies conducted Technology experiments and the learners made sonic alarms and amplifiers. This was a fascinating workshop for learners; one of whom said that it was exciting for her to see a real functioning alarm emerge from the work of her hands.
Nyanganites also got to benefit from IY’s value of paying-it-forward, as former Nyanganite, Unathi Basoni came to conduct a Business and Entrepreneurship workshop, where he spoke about finances in the home environment. He spoke to the learners about the different social grants available to citizens and the different ways of accessing grant payouts. This workshop was really useful and relevant to the learners as social grants are a source of income in many of their households.
SACTWU conducted a very informative workshop on HIV and AIDS, with free HIV counseling and testing afterwards. More than 50 learners got tested and one of the learners said the following to Tamara, who conducted the tests:
‘’I am very grateful that you came to teach us about HIV and to give us tests because people don’t talk to us about getting tested and how to keep ourselves from getting HIV. ‘’
The Safety Lab came to conduct Safety Awareness workshops in light of the high crime rates in Nyanga and surrounding areas, where our learners are predominantly from. This opened the platform up for learners to speak about their experiences with crime and violence in the community, and engage collectively, with the assistance of other youth who are working towards making the communities a safer place.
All in all, it has been a great Winter School and our Nyanga thanks all its partners and collaborators who have made this year’s Winter School a success.
We greatly value all the workshops you provided for the learners during this time and look forward to collaborating again in the near and distant future.
Lloyd Lungu