![Nyanganites taking 2011 by storm!]()
On the 22 January 2011 Nyanga Branch hosted its 2011 Open Day which was attended by more than 200 learners fom schools around Nyanga East
The Open Day was attended by tutors,learners and parents who participated during the day by sharing their experiences of last year so that the new leaners can know more about Ikamva youth, the Open Day was a day of learning more about Ikamva Youth and its programmes and also find out what the learners need
We are glad to announce that on the 29 January 2011 we registered 87 leraners and during the past week we had more coming in with their application forms and now we are looking at a total of 106 learners who have registered with Ikamva Youth (Nyanga)
We now looking at 14 Grade 9’s, 28 Grade 10’s,38 Grade 11’s and 26 Grade 12’s
From these numbers above we are proud to announce that we have a brand new Grade 9 class and the first ever Grade 12 class in the Nyanga Branch, and we look forward to seeing them all entering Tertiary next year
With this said, the Nyanga Branch will be starting officially its Saturday tutoring session tomorrow, 5 February 2011 at 9am until 12 we look forward to hosting this day
We also invite students and any Tertiary Institution that can assist us with tutoring to contact me or apply online, browse the GET INVOLVED page and enter your details and we will amke sure we get back to you as soon as possible
Let me extend a warm appreciation to all those who have assisted us during the Open Day and Registration Day, and lets keep it up guys the real work has begun!
More than 350 learners accompanied by their parents, volunteers, NGO representatives and friends of IkamvaYouth from Ivory Park, Ebony Park, Rabie Ridge, Kaalfontein and surrounding areas filled the IkamvaYouth Centre hall to its capacity and listened attentively to increase their chances of being selected to become Ikamvanites in 2011.
The sad reality is that of the 300+ learners who have expressed an interest in joining the Ivory Park branch we only have the capacity to admit 120 learners in 2011.
Those who don’t make it are encouraged to join the Thandulwazi Academic Support programme hosted by the St Stithians Foundation on the St Stithians College school grounds. We will be happy to assist with additional information in this regard.
Of course, if government and corporates have keen ears and interest to impact where it matters the most, this is an opportunity to invest financial resources to IkamvaYouth to increase its capacity to take more learners and be part of this life-changing opportunity. IkamvaYouth literally changes the lives and future prospects of our learners but also of the as-yet-unnamed learners to come who will benefit from successful ikamvanites returning to pass on their knowledge gained.
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.
Hi everyone,
I am writing on behalf of all the ikamvanites to say a huge THANK YOU to all our learners, volunteers, interns, families, collaborators, supporters and friends; to wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS and to share some of our highlights and stories of 2010.
The year started with much cause for celebration: Our two grade 12 cohorts from the class of 2009 achieved excellent results. The Western Cape learners achieved a 89.7% matric pass, while the KZN learners achieved an 82% pass; compared with the national pass rate of 60.6% and provincial passes of 78.6% and 66.1% respectively. Even more impressively, 86% of the Western Cape ikamvanites and 81% of the KZN ikamvanites achieved Bachelor or Diploma passes, enabling access to university and universities of technology. This is particularly notable given that only 34.9% of black South African youth achieved these types of quality passes in 2008 (CHET, 2009). More than 70% of last year’s grade 12s are currently enrolled in tertiary institutions, and many have returned as volunteer tutors and mentors.
We’re hoping that the class of 2010 will reach similar heights, despite the disruptive school year caused by the World Cup and the strikes. IkamvaYouth’s branches stepped up to offer intensive tutoring, holiday programmes and strike-interventions this year, and the results of our volunteers and learners’ hard work is already evident in the reports that have been coming in over the last few weeks. There are so many great stories, activities, projects and achievements that it’s impossible to mention them all here. Please browse through our blog, join us on facebook and follow us on twitter to get a sense of some of what’s been happening this year at our branches in Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Masiphumelele, Cato Manor and Ivory Park.
We thank the supporters and partners who made these events happen, particularly the campuses that availed pro bono access to their venues and infrastructure for weekly activities (Nazeema Isaacs Library, Masiphumelele Library, Nyanga Library & Siyakhula Community Centre) and winter schools (TSiBA, UWC , DUT). A huge thanks is due to the committed donors who funded our activities again this year (Raimondo Trust, EMpower, The Learning Trust , Amobia, Hatch, Transnet & PPF), and a great thanks and welcome to the new funders who joined us this year (Potter foundation, Anglo American Chairman’s Fund, AME, Starbucks, Masi Corp, Eskom, Apheda, Nashua & WCED). Thanks especially to the individuals who’ve donated throughout the year through our fundraising events and monthly direct deposits.
We’re very proud to have launched the coolest website on the Internet, and send out a huge shout of thanks to the volunteers who designed and developed it :). We’re also super excited about the upcoming ikamvanite zone site, where ikamvanites can share resources, how-tos and networks for implementing IY programmes at their branches and beyond… watch out for the launch early next year.
Phillip Mcelu, Funeka Kalawe and I presented the IkamvaYouth model at the Quest conference on Improving Student Achievement and 21st Century Skills in Canada, and a major highlight of 2010 was receiving the Mail & Guardian / Southern African Trust Drivers of Change award for being THE civil society drivers of change in Southern Africa! The judges said of the ikamvanites “these learners are the true drivers of change as they are also setting a good example for younger learners to become agents of change for their own success.” Please read the full article about IkamvaYouth in the M&G’s Investing in the Future suppplement.
Finally, we welcome and congratulate the newest addition to our board of directors, Thobela Bixa. Thobela was a grade 12 ikamvanite in 2005, and has recently been awarded the Potter fellowship to do his MA in Chemistry at UCT. He’ll also be joining Susie at the University of Michigan for a year 🙂 We thank David and Elaine Potter for their ongoing suport of our people and organisation.
While we celebrate the achievements of our learners and volunteers, the situation we seek to address is depressingly becoming worse. While in 2002, white learners were twice as likely to enrol in tertiary study than their black counterparts, in 2007 this disparity increased such that white learners were three and a half times as likely to enter the doors of higher learning than black learners (CHET, 2009). The pressure is therefore upon us to do more, and in order to step up to meet this need, we need your help.
If each of the people reading this volunteers 3 hours a month or donates your equivalent earnings for this time, we can make a significant dent in the inequality that’s perpetuating disadvantage in SA.
600 learners will be enrolled in IY programmes next year, and we need funding to provide them with the support they need to lift themselves and each other out of poverty. With more volunteers and funds, we can reach more learners in the coming years – join the learning revolution and be the change! Volunteer! Donate! … or at least get a My School Card!
We’re holding thumbs for our 2010 matric’s results, and look forward to all the successes and challenges of 2011. But in the interim, let’s all enjoy the holidays 🙂
Viva ikamvanites, viva! Thanks for a truly remarkable and wonderful 2010.
Joy
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!
S’bonelo Cele, aka Blstk Joe Banker is a new volunteer to IkamvaYouth KZN who joined us in the third term of the school year. I met him on my trip to Grahamstown where we were part of a production from the BAT Centre in Durban. Blstk was a regular rapper, as far as I could see. To the extent that when he asked if he could volunteer after I had spoken to him about Ikamva, I thought, “Great another rapper who can only tutor English”.
When he arrived (on time) on the first Saturday, he told me how excited he was because he had not touched High School Physics in some time. Needless to say, I was taken back. A rapper who is good at Physics. Those are very hard to come by.
On his first day, I explained to Blstk how Ikamva works and he took over from there. When I walked into his class I was surprised that the learners were all quiet listening to this tiny figure teaching them about Physics and where it applies in the real world. To this day, the learners ask for Blstk to tutor Physics because he is able to make it relatable to their lives. He encourages learners to see Physics at work in their everyday lives, which makes it easier for them to understand it as a subject. I dare say, even I’m starting to see the work of physics around me… As someone who is not studying and is currently unemployed, he gave his time to teaching the Grade 12s during the teacher strike in September. This made a huge difference in the learners confidence in themselves as they had given up, because the preliminary examinations were close, while their striking teacher had not yet finished teaching them the Physics curriculum.
Blstk has had a huge impact on Ikamva, but volunteering has also changed his outlook on life. According to Blstk, volunteering has shown him that are more important things in life that most people overlook. The opportunity to help others and empower the future generation has proved to be very fulfilling. The idea of helping learners realise their full potential and succeed at school has given him drive and passion which resonates in other aspects of his life. He was able to find meaning for his life and this has enabled him to push himself to achieve more with his rap career. The determination, sense of initiative and hard work ethic which he hopes to impart to learners has seen Blstk take on projects that he thought would be insurmountable a few months ago.
The returns on volunteering are not always tangible, yet sometimes the biggest gains for individuals are the intangible lessons and ways of seeing oneself and the world, that make a difference. Blstk not only encourages his learners to be more and do more, but he has also learned to believe in himself by practising what he preaches.
Lloyd Lungu