Makhaza students were abuzz last week with excitment and creativity when they got the chance to create a music video for the Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards. (VOTE TODAY!) This program is designed to provide youth in underserved communities with the critical skills they need to become active and engaged members of their communities and the world at large. By engaging these young people in exciting and meaningful new ways it provides a platform for them to communicate their concerns, aspirations, and vision using modern communications skills in telling stories that make a real impact.
Shelley Smith, a UCT masters student who facilitated the project for us and has this to say:
“It has truly been such a joy and inspiration to work with the group of IkamvaYouth participants involved in the Adobe Youth Aspire Awards project. I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to get to know such intelligent, creative, innovative, and passionate people; From them I have learned so much and am inspired to do so much more. The participants were given the task of creating a multimedia project which addressed critical issues and provided solutions for positive change. They chose to produce a music video combining mixed beats, acting, rap, poetry and song all student-created, filmed, and edited. The participants were given a very short amount of time to develop and execute the project and they did so with positively soaring colours.
What was beautiful to witness was the profound importance of the project to the participants and the pride they took in their work, not just because it was a fun music video, but because of the message they were communicating to their peers and to the world through a medium that showcased their individual talents and gifts. Their video addressed the crucial importance of education and how, no matter what obstacles one faces or peer pressure one encounters, he or she must keep working hard, believe in himself, never give up on his dreams; As the video states, this is the way to ‘drive poverty away.’ The video highlight Ikamva Youth as a vessel that strengthens them both academically and emotionally and is a necessity for them if they are to succeed in achieving their goals.
My role in the project was to guide the participants in the whole process and keep a structure in place; structure for the actual music video as well as timing structure of the steps needed to create, shoot, and edit the project to meet Adobe’s deadline. Given my background in broadcast journalism, I also ran a videography and editing workshop with the three IkamvaYouth members who served as the ‘camera crew’ and the main editor. I was blown away at how quickly the ‘media team’ picked up on the tips and skills I had to share with them and how eager they were to learn and get into the meat of the work – Made my job as teacher very easy! 🙂
Aside from the brilliant talent the members brought to the table, their teamwork, respect for one another, and communal effort to make the video the best it could be was truly amazing. I’ve so loved the time spent with each of them; many laughs, many jokes, many memories to be treasured. I cannot wait to see where these all-stars go and hope to continue working with Ikamva in the months to come. Great job everyone! 🙂 “
Check out the video here!
Big up Shelley, We love you!
Makhaza and Nyanga branch assistants Zukile and Asanda attended an Effective Volunteer Management Training workshop which was held by Volunteer Centre at Claremont Library. This course is developed for managers/coordinators of volunteers to assist them in strengthening their management and support systems for their local and international volunteers. They also help organisations and their volunteers to understand their roles and responsibilities and expectations.
After these 3 days I realised that it is very important to treat volunteers well and make sure they happy. The value of the volunteers cannot be measured. Their contribution is critical to organisations operations and activities. One of the things I really enjoyed about the training is that our organisation IkamvaYouth is already doing all the things organisation should do to make sure that the volunteers are recognised. I learned the following things about tutor retention:
Training
Provide tutors with appropriate training, regular evaluation, and recognition. This means that all the tutors should get a training on how to be good tutor, what to do? And what is not needed to do.
Support and supervision
Regular opportunities for support and supervision are important and can help to identify, and even prevent demotivation which can result in volunteers leaving the organisation. This means that the branch assistance has to make sure that he/ she manages the volunteers, making sure that they get all the material they need to tutor. Also manage new tutors, by partnering them with old tutors. Also make sure that all the tutors have a group of learners to tutor. One of the things that cause tutors not to come back again is poor management. If they do not get the learners to tutor they get bored and do not come back again.
Recognition
Once tutors are working within our organisation it is essential to maintain their motivation and enthusiasm if they are to be retained. Care must be taken to treat volunteers in such a way that they will want to stay with the organisation. Developing activities that meet volunteers individual needs, provide recognition and appreciation of their work and celebrate a sense of achievement will promote self-esteem, strengthen commitment and develop a feeling of belonging and loyalty to the organisation. At IkamvaYouth we already are rewarding our tutors, such as end of year ceremonies with certificates, tutor outings and employment opportunities.
I learn a lot from the course and I’ll be bringing a lot of the lessons to our Makhaza branch, especial making sure that we retained our tutors and show how much we value them.
On the weekend of 31 March and 1 April IYKZN hosted it’s 2nd SPW at the Chesterville branch. We had the priviledge of being joined by our National Coordinator Zamo Shongwe and our Director and Co-Founder Joy Olivier, who was also present at last years SPW. Excitement and enrgy filled the centre as we were joined by tutors from both our branches – Umlazi and Chesterville. Unlike last year where the SPW took place after one of our Saturday School sessions, we had a full 2 days to spend planning 2012 and going over 2011 with those that joined during the year as well as addressing ways of improvement that could be implemented.
A mixture of new and old tutors gave us a chance to discuss the growth of IYKZN over the years and all our achievements till now. New tutors and learner reps got a chance to contribute their thoughts and participate in an active conversation about IY’s plans for 2012 while learning from those who have been present over the years. This meant that most of day 1 was spent around understanding IY and our mission and values as well as recognising our achievements. New members also had the chance to contribute towards our budget, enforcing our open door policy to all those present.
Day 2 began with our previous Branch Comm going through each of their portfolios and the success of 2011 within each portfolio. Thereafter we had a chance to listen to motivations by group members who were present and interested in forming 2012’s new Branch Comm. Which was very heartwarming as a few learner reps also stood up and shared their interests. Though there are now 2 branches, seems like both Branch Comms are a passionate group of people who are committed to passing forward love and knowledge to all future Ikamvanites. Overall, our SPW was a great success filled with love and laughter as we used fun and games to bond and shared our thoughts in an inviting circle of acceptance filled with individuals with a common love and goal for Ikamva KZN. To LIFT AS YOU RISE!!
Follow the link to read the full report: strategic_planning_weekend_report_-_kzn.pdf
This past weekend of the 3rd and 4th March our Makhaza held their 2012 Strategic Planning Weekend. It was an excellent opportunity for volunteers, tutors and leaner reps to participate in core operational planning and goal setting.
The Main goal of our SPW was to elect a branch committee (in charge of roles and portfolios) and for new volunteers (grade12 from last year returning) to take ownership of programme and become part of the management team. It was also a great weekend for the leaner reps and tutors to get to know each other better.
Being a branch committee member isn’t easy, with the prestige comes a huge amount responsibility and high expectations from the rest of the learners and tutors to raise the branch up for the year and provide quality programmes.
We decided to shake things up a little this weekend and work together to provide all the branches with a working document that is the branch com constitution, outlining why it exists, the main aims and goals as well as cementing responsibilities of the various programmes.
Unathi Smile, a volunteer and intern at Makhaza says, ‘the weekend was a great experience for many of us, but speaking for myself it was a brilliant way of putting things in perspective. Saturday afternoon, what I took with me is that, 26 heads are so much better than 1 head, meaning if one person had to sit and think about burning issues at IkamvaYouth Makhaza branch, that would not have been a great experience and I assure that somebody would have taken time in thinking about these and finding solutions at the same time. Sunday morning was just too good to be true, learner reps appointed members of the branch comm. and I am proud to say that I was appointed for two portfolios, namely, Career Guidance and Computer (Khan Academy).
We had to present goals, what needs to be done to reach that particular goal, by when the goals should be reached and by whom. I have no experience of leading a team but it is great to learn and persevere at the same time meeting the needs of the learners and those of the Makhaza IkamavaYouth branch. I have taken away with me memories and have learned that one must not under estimate the ability of others.’
Zesipho Dyonase, Grade 9, says that “I have learnt that you don’t have to hold back any ideas or views that you have, you must voice them out. I have taken away with me the spirit of working together as a team, through that spirit, nothing can bring IkamvaYouth down.”
And our youngest branch comm member, confident and outspoken Grade 8 learner Luxhase Yokwana, head of tutoring says “I had so much fun, and definitely took away a lot of things, one of them being able to work with other learners from different grades. My parents were so proud of me when I told them that I am in the IkamvaYouth Makhaza branch committee, what is left of the Ikamvanites now is to put the plans into action.”
Read the full report here and have a look at our new Branch Comm Constitution
Our new Branch Committee 2012!
Plans become action lists
Puthang running through why we exist and the issues faced at the branch
One of Makhaza’s tutors was lucky enough to be involved with Dance4Life and RedZebra Foundation which uses creative facilitation techniques, dialogue tools, bottom up processes as well as music and rhythm to deliver powerful experiences for the young people. The approach is youth friendly and centered around the notion that
Dance for life is a dynamic international initiative that involves young people; it encourages them to use their voices in stopping the further spread of HIV/AIDS and breaking down the stigma and taboos that surround the pandemic. Its approach covers all aspects of popular youth culture: media, language, icons music and especially dance. Dance is a universal language and through Dance4life young people dance with a cause. During the Schools4Life project (visiting schools and run workshops), which is the heart of the concept, they acquire the knowledge and life skills they need to protect themselves, while motivated to inform their peers and take action to improve young people reproduction health and rights.
By involving youth, it’s possible to change not only their behavior but also to mobilize them to create social change in their communities so that others change their behavior and perceptions as well. Dance4Life strives to empower young people to unleash their leadership potential, including young people living with HIV.
Ayanda Sawulisi, a past IkamvaYouth learner at the Makhaza branch, now a committed tutor participated for the week’s training and has this to say, ‘Well I got involve in the Dance4life project via Ikamva Youth. I got interested in the program because I love to work with young people and being the person that I am who is involved in the entertainment industry, I believe that I can use my skills and elevate dance4life project to new heights.
I also joined because Dance4life’s tool of getting the message across is very unique and inclusive ways though dance, music, spoken word etc which are my areas of interest. The training was great; it was very informative in terms of leadership skills and how to run workshops. It was full of energy, skills exchanging and creativity. Most of all I enjoyed to learn the dance which was the core element of the program and I was blessed to be amongst individuals who are very talented and who are in the virtue of becoming young leaders. The dance will help me in a way that I will be able to teach others but most of all to teach them the message behind the dance and it also help in terms of fitness/health because you sweat very much!’
Big up to Peter Schaupp and RedZebra Foundation for the opportunity!
The fifteen people who’re ensuring that hundreds of South African youth pull themselves and others out of poverty through education finally got to work together in person. For an entire week!
Being an IY natcom member isn’t easy. It’s a huge amount of responsibility, with high expectations and the pressure to make every cent stretch further than most people would think possible. One of the ways in which we run a low-cost, high-impact model with national reach is by leveraging technology, and our national team works from townships and cities across the country, connecting via Skype, email, gchat, google docs and the ikamvanitezone. Connectivity challenges at many branches make our online meetings difficult, and we often find ourselves trying to have big conversations and make important decisions with distracting background noise, calls dropping, and participants either unable to hear or be heard.
So the 18th September marked the day that many natcom members got to meet their colleagues in person for the first time. And eish but did we maximise that face-to-face time all week!
Mignon Lotz-Keyser from Peer Power generously volunteered her time, skills and expertise to facilitate our conversations, from vision & values right through to the action-item-to-do list for ensuring that this vision is realised. Key strategic partners Capitec, the Learning Trust and iKapaData joined us at points during the week, and our chairperson Leigh Meinert took leave from her day job as MD of TSiBA to provide valuable input over two days. Dennis Clark, our accountant, joined for the Thursday evening braai and Friday Finance Day, where we spoke about improving our financial tracking and reporting processes and presented the first round of proposed branch budgets for 2012.
We’d parked many big decisions for the week which meant long conversation, dialogue and debate which often stretched late into the evening. The chunky issues we grappled with were themes within this overarching one: “How do we grow, expand our reach, improve our professionalism and operate sustainably without negatively impacting our organisational culture and losing our soul?” We realised that our organisation is at another growth phase, whereby the need for more structures and procedures has presented itself to a group of social entrepreneurs who value democratic decision making, independence and autonomy, and hold views as strong as their performance is high.
Thankfully this small group of people who’re changing the world are smart, committed, and work wonderfully well together. The culmination of beautifully diverse yet unifying views and ideas, expressed in the inspirational setting of Goedgedacht farm, resulted in a strong, thoughtful plan for our next steps and leaps forward.
Read the full report, or simply get an overview of what it’s all building towards from our co-created vision for the next five years:
Our culture of responsibility is creating a ripple effect of thriving individuals and communities. Our intergenerational ikamvanites provide access to quality education in inspirational spaces everywhere. We are an integrated network driving change by paying it forward.
From Left to Right, Back row: Dennis Clark (Accountant), Nombuyiselo Dziba (Nyanga coordinator), Modjadji Selowe (Ivory Park assistant), Liesel Bakker (Makhaza coordinator), Zoe Mann (Natcom project manager & Masi assistant), Phillip Mcelu (Makhaza Supplementary Tutoring Head, MathsYesWeCan project manager and fieldworker for IkamvaYouth Evaluation), Mignon Lotz-Keyser (Facilitator), Joy Olivier (Director)
From Left to Right, Front row: Andrew Barrett’s shadow (Gauteng coordinator), Sbonelo Cele (Cato Manor assistant), Nico Commeignes (Masi coordinator), Asanda Nanise (Nyanga assistant), Joe Manciya (Ivory Park coordinator), Thobile Mthembu (Cato Manor coordinator), Zukile Keswa (Makhaza coordinator) and Zamo Shongwe (National coordinator)
Lloyd Lungu