This past Sunday the Masinites hit Table Mountain. Despite the outing being cancelled twice during winter school because of unpredictable Cape Town weather, the learners finally made it to the top of our local natural wonder of the world! Thirty-five learners and several volunteers ascended in the cable car and braved the icy temperatures to explore the top of the mountain. Visibility was not ideal, but the fog did clear enough to take in the stunning views of Cape Town. It was great to have an outing together and reward everyone for their hard work and dedication to IkamvaYouth!
The Nyanga lab has recieved a generous donation of a Workio 8020 printer from PanSolutions. The machine is a multi-functional one which can print, copy, scan and fax documents. A PanSolutions representative who opted not to be named said the following: ‘At PanSolutions we try to reach out and help the community in whatever way we can’.
A huge thank you to PanSolutions for this generous donation.
Do you know what you want to do after Matric?
This is a hard decision, one that requires a lot of information and careful consideration, but IkamvaYouth and Equal Education are here to help. We would like to invite you to our 2012 Careers Indaba.
Come join us on the 14 September 2012 in the Zolani Centre in Nyanga (across the road from the Nyanga bus and taxi rank), and is open to grades 8-12.
Address:
The Zolani Centre,
Sithandatu Avenue,
Nyanga
7750
Directions to Zolani Centre
From Cape Town city centre:
Get on to the N2 toward the Cape Town Airport and Somerset West.
At junction 18 take right on to Borcherds Quarry Road (signposted to Nyanga/M22)
Follow this road down to the T- junction at the taxi rank and take a left on to Sithandatu Avenue
The Zolani Centre is on your left immediately and you can turn into the car park straight after the first set of robots.
The purpose of the Careers Indaba is to expose you to new opportunities, provide information about various study options, learnerships and volunteer programs, resources and support structures. In addition the Careers Indaba will offer workshops on CV writing, interview techniques and personal development. These are skills you will need wherever your path takes you!
Why should I come?
Whether you want to continue your studies, start working; find out about on the job training these choices require information and planning. Alternatively do you want to apply for a volunteer program or internship? It is important to start investigating your options now. At the Careers Indaba you will be able to talk directly to the people who are there to guide you in the right direction.
What are my options?
1/ Continue your studies: Do you want to become a teacher, doctor, electrician, scientist, a lawyer, hairdresser, accountant or nurse? All these positions require you to study further. At the Careers Indaba you will be able to discuss your options for universities, colleges, and Further Education Training (FET colleges)
2/ Working & on-the-job training: Do you want to make your own way and be an entrepreneur? Find our what it involves running your own business or learn while working through learnership programmes. At the Careers Indaba you will be able to find out about these options.
3/Volunteering, Internships and Gap Year Programmes: Do you want to spend some time deciding what your next step is, or getting to know yourself and the world about you a little better? Do you want to give back to your community or volunteer and gain valuable experience in a specific field? The Careers Indaba will give you the opportunity to find out more about this.
Spread the word, looking forward to seeing you all there!
By Charmaine Gxekwa, Lindokulhe Ntombana, Aphiwe Tukani and Phumza Kibi
ENKE-MAKE YOUR MARK!!!
WHY WE APPLIED FOR ENKE
We wanted to gain knowledge and improve our skills by interacting and learning from other people. We wanted to get to know other people and their backgrounds. It was mostly about us adapting to other environments and working together towards a common goal, trying to change our environment as the youth.
WHAT WE LEARNT FROM ENKE
We learnt how to work as a team and most importantly that everyone plays a role in the team. We discovered who we really are and that everyone matters. We learnt to never underestimate people before you really know them and never let anyone tell you what to do when you know you’re capable of more. We also created friendships with different people from different backgrounds. We now have the knowledge of how one can change their environment matter how small the change is, it makes a difference at the end of the day it all matters.
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?
We are going to go back to our communities and identify a passion, major concern or problem that we to have and try to improve or change it .We are going to carry out our own projects as the youth and try to make a change, for we are the future leaders. Anything is possible and we intend to prove that. We want to create a movement, to create a better world for the future generation. We want to be the change we want to see in the world. We want to run a project that will help and inspire the community or change someone’s life. We intend on making a huge difference.
Visit the ENKE website: www.enke.co.za
On the 28th of July, at the Zolani Centre all the IkamvaYouth Western Cape branches met together for our annual talent show/ sport/ debating event.
The day was filled with fun activities such as singing, dancing, soccer, debate, chess and drama. The three branches- Nyanga, Makhaza and Masiphumelele, competed against each other. Nyanga branch was the host and the defending champion. Even though the Western Cape winter school is held in 3 different venues, the talent show is held in one venue where the competition was tough and all the branches came prepared to win. As the day went on we saw many acts from all the branches, some fierce soccer skills, and contentious debate. At the end of the day, however, there could only be one winner.
This year the Makhaza branch emerged victorious! Both its debating teams won against Nyanga and Masiphumelele. A grade 10 learner Gcobisa said of the debate, “It was so exciting. One of the things I enjoyed was meeting Ikamvanites from other branches. I was part of the winning debating team. Even though I was nervous as I was debating for the first time in my life I did great. I will continue debating, because debating increases my self-esteem and builds my confidence. Also, it felt so good to see other fellow Makhaza Ikamvanites supporting me while I was on stage.”
Telling my Story
Time really flies, Its seems like yesterday that I was sitting at the library doing my school work when I meet Joy, Susie, Makhosi and other Ikamvanites tutors.
I started attending IkamvaYouth in 2004 when I was in Grade 11; the year IkamvaYouth was official registered. Ever since then I have been part of the IkamvaYouth family. I joined this amazing organisation because I needed help with my subjects and I wanted to improve my results in order to become eligible to access tertiary studies. I attended high school at Manyano High School around Khayelitsha. At that time I was doing grade 11 and I knew that I needed help to improve my results but I didn’t have money to pay for extra classes. I spent most of my time after school at the library. After joining the IkamvaYouth my results increased, at the end of 2004 I was the top accounting learner at Manyano High School.
In 2005, I came back to IkamvaYouth as a grade 12 learner and continued to work hard on raising my results. 2005 was the difficult year for me. In this year I had to work hard because it was my last year in high school. Before Joining IkamvaYouth university was not something I would ever consider. I knew it very well my family would not be able to afford university tuition. At IkamvaYouth tutors provided us with the pack of information about tuition, loans and bursaries that one can get. They even helped with application money for me and the other learners that needed help.
Growing up in a township is not easy. At a young age you face many challenges, such as peer pressure. You find out some people hate the fact that you go to the library and study. Khayelitsha is one of the townships that struggles most with high rate of crime, HIV/AIDS, dropout at school, low pass rate in Matric, poverty and drug abuse. When you are young, you have to face all of these things. But it’s all about making the right choices. For me I made the right choice by choosing school. I told myself that I wanted to be the role model and be something out of nothing.
I matriculated in 2005 as the dux scholar top most performing student in Manyano High School. I was the top learner at Manyano High school in the following subjects: Mathematics, Accounting, Business and Economics!
I successfully applied at University of the Western Cape (UWC), Tertiary School in Business Administration (Tsiba) and University of Cape Town, with the 1st choice of Bcom General and Bcom Accounting at UCT. I was so excited when I received my provisional accepted letter from University of the Western Cape. The sad part came when I found out that I have to pay upfront payment R4300 as the registration fee. I realised that I had only one option to work hard and get better results so that I could be eligible to get bursary.
On the 28th of December 2005 I got a phone call from my class teacher telling me that I passed. I was in the Eastern Cape that time. I was so excited, but at the same time worried. I was worried about what would happen in the following year because I didn’t have funds for the registration fee.
The following January, I remember I was with Joy and other two learners who were also accepted at University of the Western Cape, none of us had money to pay the registration fee. We were trying to get assistance from the financial aid office and the people were not helping. We moved up and down in long queues NO one was helping and no one was willing to give us registration fees even though we had good results. Joy finally had enough when we got into the financial aid office. She told the lady that was in charge that we not leaving the office until we got help. We showed them our acceptance letter and our good matric results. Then we all seat on the floor since there were no chairs *ha ha ha* After a while, a lady left and came back with 3 forms to fill out. We were told that our registration had been cleared then we can go and register.
That same year I realised that I had to give back to my community. I returned to IkamvaYouth as a tutor. I was tutoring Accounting, Business Economics (Business studies now) and Economics. I was also involved in the branch committee. Giving back to my community as of the things that kept me motivated and working hard in life.
In 2007 I joined another project called Brawam-sisiwam mentoring programme at the University of the Western Cape. I was a mentor to 3 grade 9 learners from Masithembe high School in Phillipi. While I was tutoring at IkamvaYouth I was also a tutor for UWC’s SRC winter classes held in 2006.
I remained a committed volunteer at the IkamvaYouth branch; I also served as the head of the Career Guidance committee. While I was studying I also managed to find time to work part-time as senior computer lab assistance at the University of the Western Cape in 2009 and 2010.
I graduated with Bcom Information systems degree at University of the Western Cape. In March 2011 I started to serve as branch assistant at IkamvaYouth in Makhaza. In the organisation I am the first employee to come through the tutoring programme.
As for my job now…..
I am assisting with general administration and providing assistance to the branch coordinator. Collecting school reports and entering data into database. Communicating and logistics for daily activities, programme delivery and events. Assisting with general lab duties such as printing, photocopying and ensures proper usage and maintenance of the environment. Working with learners is very interesting and challenging at the same time. Managing 160 learners and 40 volunteers/ tutors is not an easiest task to do. One of the things that really help me to do well in my job is that I have experience as a learner and tutor/volunteer. This helps me to relate well with people I am working with.
Since most of our parents didn’t have the opportunity to study, I find for most of the learners IkamvaYouth is the only place where they get the opportunity to get the feedback on their school results. Our learners are between the ages of 13 to 19. At their young age they realise that their future depends on education, this is one the things that motivate me to wake up every day and be in the office to help.
Lloyd Lungu