I joined IkamvaYouth in 2004 while I was doing my grade 11. In 2005 I was doing my matric. In 2006 I started to volunteer in the organisation while I was doing my first year at the University of the Western Cape. Since then I have been an active member in the organisation. In 2011 I started to work for the organisation. I am the first former learner to actually work for the organisation. I’m real happy to work for the organisation. Giving back to my community is very important to me. Never thought one I would work for this organisation. This also brought a change in my life. I studied Bcom Information systems now I am working as an administrator. While I was studying, I was hoping to work for private companies and never thought I would be working for NGO, but I am happy and satisfied to work for IkamvaYouth. Then I realised that you can study for certain field and working in different field and be satisfied.
Thank You
Ikamvanites across the country have been deeply saddenned by the terrible news of Dave Eadie’s sudden and shocking passing.
Dave was instrumental in ensuring that every learner at every branch of IkamvaYouth has the Answer Series guides they need to achieve, improve their academic results, and access the post-school opportunities that’ll change their lives.
An excerpt from Khona’s post on the FaceBook community page where huge numbers of people are sharing their memories, photos and condolences was read out at the funeral:
“I never met Dave, but he has touched the lives of the learners that I work with as part of IkamvaYouth. Our learners come from poor backgrounds and attend under-achieving township schools. Through Dave’s generosity, our learners have had access to study guides that they otherwise cannot afford to buy. These young people’s lives are being transformed as they use these books to get themselves out of poverty and into tertiary. Thanks to Dave and the rest of the Answer Series team.
While he never personally met any of the learners that I work with in KZN, he has changed their lives and those of their families. He had helped create a domino effect that will not only change the lives of individuals, but whole communities and the country.”
Joe wrote, “Dave had such an amazing personality – we may have not known him that much but his selflessness giving resonated to IkamvaYouth of Ivory Park branch near Johannesburg. Always made the best out of any situation – we learned a lot from his selfless giving and life will be very different without him. We are sorry for his untimely and tragic death. We share the grief and loss of his family and friends. In Xhosa they say, “AKUHLANGA LUNGEHLANGA” “Ulale Ngoxolo”
And Nombu wrote, “On behalf of the Nyanga Branch (Ikamva Youth) thanx to Dave our learners at Nyanga have gained alot from your kind heart, May your soul rest in peace! We were truely blessed to have had our path cross with yours Dave!”
Sizwe Matoti read the contribution Dave made to the YEP Clan Newsletter, an excerpt from which I’ll post here as it beautifully explains the motivation for Dave’s support of community projects:
“I was mostly too young, but perhaps more importantly, too apathetic and politically unaware to have played any meaningful role in the dismantling of the apartheid regime. Instead, I continued my relatively selfish existence, somewhat aware of the injustices around me, but largely in denial of their existence, and certainly with no strong enough moral conviction to actually do anything about it.
The eventual dismantling of apartheid and relatively peaceful transition to a multi-racial democracy was hard won by the toil and suffering of thousands of South Africans (as well as citizens and leaders abroad), who cared enough about our country and its people to sacrifice small and large amounts of themselves and their lives to bring about the nation in which we currently live.
However, although it was truly a miracle and much has been achieved in terms of reconciliation, human rights, infrastructure, much of the legacy of apartheid remains, and this is the single biggest de-stabilizing factor in our country, an unacceptable injustice that we live with on a continued basis, and which we must eradicate if we are to live in true harmony.
As a child of South Africa, and a benefactor of its history, I desire to play a role in rebuilding our new nation, and accept my shared responsibility for its future, borne out of a strong belief in our country’s potential to overcome all odds, that we can step into the dream of a rainbow in peace, where all citizens are proud to be South African, and that by working together we can realise our full greatness.”
Dave certainly played this role, and we thank him!
Ikamvanites don’t let a little thing like a petrol bomb derail us from our big vision. In fact, like Zukile and Mphumzi say in the short film about the Freedom Day attack, more power to us!
On 1 May, we spent the day at TSiBA brainstorming the first big challenge for sustainably scaling the IkamvaYouth model across the country: Where’s the $$ going to come from so that there can be an IkamvaYouth branch at every library, community centre and university campus that wants one?
Freda Grey generously volunteered her time, wisdom and expertise to facilitate (and challenge!) the stretching of imaginations as far as our risk-averse temperaments would allow. Natcom members (Andrew, Khona, Zoe, Nombu, Nico and I), board members (Leigh and Colin) and branchcom members (Phillip and Naledi), as well as one of our advisors (Eugene Daniels, the District Director of Metropole South) brainstormed numerous income opportunities and identified the ones we’d like to develop further as potential business cases.
We’ve set up a study group on the Peer-to-Peer University website for keeping the conversation going, and invite everyone with insight, opinions or ideas to get involved and contribute to the development of our strategy for sustainable scale.
The day ended on a sombre note with Eugene describing the challenges that the Education crisis presents. He noted IkamvaYouth’s innovative approach, track record and potential for scale and emphasised the urgency for reaching significantly larger numbers of learners. Watch this space or get involved in this one!
“IKAMVAYOUTH is like a home, a place where I go whenever I need help with anything. It gave me excellent opportunities to perform with well-known artists,” said Khayelitsha rapper Snarks Ou.
IkamvaYouth is a dynamic volunteer youth NGO established in 2003 that helps disadvantaged young people in Makhaza, Khayelitsha.
“The idea is that the youth can work towards pulling themselves out of poverty and into university and employment through peer-to-peer learning and support” said volunteer Joy Olivier.
The programme boasts a matric pass rate of 87-100 percent since 2005, with more than 70 percent of pupils accessing tertiary education over the past three years. Their success has led to the model’s replication in five townships in three provinces, and numerous accolades include the Mail & Guardian / Southern Africa Trust Drivers of change award last year.
But on Freedom Day the IkamvaYouth Centre was petrol-bombed and destroyed. Thobela Bixa, an IkamvaYouth board member and an ex-pupil of the organisation, who is doing his MA in chemistry at UCT said: “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.”
Joy said all their computers had melted, and all equipment, records and resources were reduced to ashes. Digital cameras for their photography project were destroyed, as were new smartphones they were using for a UCT/Nokia project to make documentaries.
“All the paintings by our creative learners in a project with Alex Krentz were burnt,” said Joy. “And we’re going to have to somehow replace our digicams, film equipment, computers, art materials and so much more. Essentially everything has gone.”
Artists such as Snarks Ou have hugely benefitted from being a bolunteer on the creative arm of IkamvaYouth on the media, image and expression programmes. “It is such bad news and I appeal to readers to help us start again because there are many children here in Makhaza who still need to benefit from this important organisation.” Realising that their dreams “is now going to be inmpossible unless we revive IkamvaYouth”.
“I need it, we need it, you ned it, because we are all in this together, wishing for a brighter future. IkamvaYouth gives hope to our community youth’s future.”
The rapper said IkamvaYouth was a place where people could go to any time of the day and work on their projects, rehearse and type their CVs. “It’s a place where no one pays to use the resources or for anyone’s help because we are all volunteers. It was a place that, importantly, kept children off the streets. I have been to Durban to perform my music because of this organisation. I have been doing big shows in Cape Town and that didn’t just happen because they liked me or something, but because I was dedicated and have been a learner with IkamvaYouth from the start,” said Snarks, who has written a song dedicated to IkamvaYouth.
“The song will be a bonus track on my album to be released later this year and will also be available as a free download on the IkamvaYouth website, he said.
Snarks said he was influenced by the hood and dope rappers. Born in the Eastern Cape, he was raised by a single grandmother. It was here that his love for rap music developed and by the age of 12 he had penned his first lyrics on cardboard boxes. His first hit song, Iyelenqe, was produced by Pzho. He has since worked with Mashonisa from BackYard Records, a talented producer in Khayelitsha. He has opened for both Backyard Crew and Teargas and has performed in and around Cape Town in sessions, clubs and music events, sharing the stage with rappers including Driemanskap, Rattex and Backyard Crew. He has also performed with DJ Fletcher, Digital Analog and members of Freshlyground.
An unsigned artist, Snarks is now looking to take his career to the next level, “but without the back-up of IkamvaYouth, or being signed up, this feels impossible”.
The rapper will do free mix tapes and will post music to his Facebook page. “Make sure you download that free music. And when my album comes out make sure you buy it! Help me reach my dream!”
Suzy Bell is a writer, poet and columnist runs Red Eye Creative where she and a small team create and curate contemporary cultural projects celebrating Africa in Cape Town.
* IkamvaYouth is urgently calling for donations of digital cameras, film equipment, computers, office furniture or monetary donations to help fund the rebuilding. See www.ikamvayouth.org or call Winile Mabhoko at 0798854372, or email winile@ikamvayouth.org.
Please scroll down to the bottom of this page to send your own message of support.
Join us, the community of Khayelitsha and the IkamvaYouth branches across the country, in expressing our complete outrage and disbelief of the events of the past few days.
Yet, as we write this, we are also deeply grateful for the messages of support that continue to pour into IkamvaYouth’s inboxes and we thank you for all the well-wishes. Already, Ikamvanites, their parents, volunteers and members of the Khayelitsha community are helping clear up the devastation that was left in the wake of these senseless Freedom Day acts. It is, afterall, the ordinary people from all sections of South Africa that are the heartbeat of this country and we join together in a collective resilience and assurance that actions like these, that seek to destroy, will always be self-defeating.
Click here for details of the events that occured.
Click here for ways to help.
We are especially grateful for the support of our friends at Equal Education and the support of the many people below who join us in recommiting ourselves to building communities across South Africa that are about growth, hope and a future without violence and poverty. We will not rest until we get the country (and the world) we so dearly desire.
Responses to the news of the petrol bombing of the IkamvaYouth offices in Khayelitsha from ordinary South Africans whose support help make us feel extra-ordinary (feel free to add your own at the bottom):
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
Lloyd Lungu