Saturday 12 February was a day that learners in the KZN branch of Ikamva had been anticipating for more than four months – The Annual Prize Giving Ceremony. Unfortunately our ceremony had to be pushed back to early this year from late last year due to the prizes and certificates not being ready timeously. As was evidenced on Saturday, the event was worth the wait!
Engen sponsored drawstring goodie bags that consisted of 4 Quire note books, pens and diaries for learners whose attendance carried them over into this year. Learners with exemplary attendance also received these goodie bags and a R200 gift voucher from Adams. The learners who passed last year’s assessment tests during Winter School with +80% for various subjects received additional R200 book vouchers from CNA and scientific calculators. For giving so generously of their time, knowledge and skills, the tutors recieved the same gift bags with vouchers and 4gig memory sticks.
Professor David Day, the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at DUT was present at the ceremony. Prof. Day inspired the learners in his speech to Ikamvanites.
“You should keep in mind what and who you want to be in the future. When you have this in mind, you will be able to work hard in order to achieve your dreams. We all don’t want to work all the time, and we get tired of school work, but when you have a dream to work towards, it becomes that much easier for you to push yourself on those days when you don’t feel like working”, said Prof. Day.
Photo: Learners who achieved +80% in assessment tests last year with guests. l-r:Prof. Day, Tania Khumalo, Smilesihle Mngomezulu, Fortunate Chinogureyi, Samkelisiwe Jali, Phelele Gwala, Bulelwa Xobiso, Caroline Ligwa from Engen and Khona Dlamini
IkamvaYouth KZN would like to thank Caroline Ligwa and the staff at Engen for sponsoring prizes. This is one of the ways that we can incentivise hard work for learners and better commitment from volunteers. Thank you very much.
Lokhu enikwenzele thina nikuphinde nakwabanye!
The contents of the goodie bags.
Although the Careers Indaba happened *ages* ago, it was quite a crazy time for us and although we posted these pics and clips, we forgot to share the stories and news of what ended up being a really awesome day.
Collaborating with Equal Education was brilliant, and as a result, the day was bigger and better than the first Indaba we held in Khayelitsha in 2009. We leveraged contacts and lessons learned from the original two-week-long Indaba held at the Masiphumelele Library, to ensure that learners had a wide array of opportunities to interact with people from different institutions, career fields, organisations and companies. Have a look at the programme to see who was there. (careersindaba.program-2.pdf).
[video:http://www.youtube.com/user/ikamvayouth#p/u/25/oLwd3roI01s]
Aziza Mdee from Equal Education and IkamvaYouth interns Chris Fan and Miriam Rodriquez worked hard to ensure that we were organised and ready. The response was fantastic, and learners from all over Khayelitsha and many other communities streamed through the doors. Ms Makhoba, a teacher, inspired the audience, and Amanda Van der Vyver took everyone through the “Careers Exploration for Dummies” (career_exploration_for_dummies-1.pdf) booklet she created to help learners get the most out of the day.
Volunteers from various fields (from law, to medicine, fashion, engineering, hospitality services and the police service) were available for learners to interact with one-on-one, and many great connections were made. Some of these even lead to work experience opportunities!
We’re very grateful to everyone who made this very special day happen, and are looking forward to doing it all again in 2011!
While the education sector has been through some challenging times this year – especially the public sector strike that had a tremendous impact on the schooling system especially those schools in the townships, there has been many more satisfying accomplishments for IkamvaYouth along the way. During these trying times, IkamvaYouth took charge by helping our learners with more tutorial sessions during the week and on weekends which culminated to better academic results that a mojority of our learners have attained this year and of course we are very optimistic that our matriculants will do the same. All of this has been a testament to dedication and commitment of our goals. At the end of it all, one cannot forget but to mention the successfull and a well attended Prize giving ceremony hosted jointly by the Makhaza and Nyanga Branch on the 3rd December 2010. This event recognises the commitment and dedication of both our learners for achieving the best attendance for the year as well our tutors for freely and willingly giving their time, skills and talent to help us realise our goals. While the beneficiaries (i.e. leaners) were thrilled by receing the awards and of course the gifts that accomponied the certificates, one cannot forget to extend a word gratitude to people who made it all possible (our sponsors: Fedics who donated food and Appletiser who donated drinks, UCT Centre for Film and Media Studies who donated Nokia phones and a special thanks to Raimondo Trust for sponsiring our excursions, and many more who sponsored us with money, books, diaries etc)
To all our sponsors, IkamavaYouth is making an impact to our society because of your generosity and for that we are greatfull. Your donations makes it possible to continue making change in education despite the challenges we face everyday and of course the economic distress that we sometimes find ourselves.We look forward to working with you in the future.
To all our volunteers at large, IkamvaYouth and those we serve, deeply appreciate your contribution and thank you for making 2010 a year to remember.
Enyoy the festive season and all the goodness that it brings!
IkamvaYouth and SiyakhulaComputerSchool hosted guests from LeedsUniversityBusinessSchool (CIHM)
The University of Leeds Centre for Innovation in Health Management (CIHM) is pioneering innovation in health and public service management systems. A group of social entrepreneurs, community leaders, health system leaders, academics from Asia, Africa, Europe and USA visited IkamvaYouth and our sister project SiyakhulaComputerSchool. The primary purpose was to help their international network develop a shared way of understanding how systems work and evolve in order to improve their collective capacity to support value driven change around the world…
We took our visitors to Philani Support Group, Tumelo Home for the Disabled Children, IvoryParkMethodistChurch, Lord Khanyile Youth Centre and drove them around Ebony and IvoryPark and unfortunately out time was up before we could take then to the local Chisa Nyama called Imbizo Busy Corner. The day was ended in style with a dinner at Troyville Hotel, where guests were dinned and wined until late hours of the night. I had an hour to accept an envelop from Dr Becky, as a gift to the organization. The time of goodwill is just around the corner, I will be waiting for more envelops to come, keep them coming!
IkamvaYouth KZN would like to thank The Answer Series for the donation of books towards our learners. These books have been really useful especially since the public sector strike began two weeks ago. Our learners have been using the books to practice and learn while they are not being taught.
The books are also helpful for the tutors who are now able to see what the syllabus is for the year and know what to concentrate on, especially the basics for subjects like Physical Sciences, Accounting, English and Maths.
“I would like to say thank you very much to The Answer Series for providing us with so much helpful workbooks”, Xolisile – grd 11
“Thanks a lot Answer Series, your generosity and kindness just made us even better IkamvaYouth” – Nomkhosi, grd 11
“I write this letter to thank the Answer Series books. I hope you will also help others. Your books are helping us a lot, please don’t change the way you are about African pupils” – Pontso, grd 11
“Thank you Answer Series for helping us with your great books; thank you again and again” – Phindile, grd10
“Thank you, The Answer Series for giving us these books, they are helping us a lot as it says our key to matric success this is appreciable and unforgettable, keep up the good work” – Bongiwe, grd 10.
IkamvaYouth Gauteng Learners could not hold back their enthusiasm as they received The Answer Series study materials which is enabling them to work independently and in small groups at a crucial time when a lot of teaching is being lost due to the Civil Servants strike.
Teacher strikes can have a negative influence on the end of the year results but resources like the Answer Series books help the learners ensure that they keep primed and ready for their exams.
Thank you to everyone at the Answer Series -IkamvaYouth Gauteng
Lloyd Lungu