People speak of our IkamvaYouth in Makhaza as being a beacon of hope and light in the community, a safe place for learners to come and learn, a place where people become agents of change in their own lives, a place where learners can be safe from the other factors in their lives. Here gang culture is dissipated, close friendships are formed; people feel like they belong.
So when the news that Mphumzi Klaas was murdered came though one Sunday morning in June it shattered all of us and everything we believed about in Ikamva was shaken to the very core. Our best friend, confidante, our rock in unsteady times was lost to us forever.
And yet, life needed to go on, winter school started the very next day, and so with 150 people balancing grieving and all the high energy that comes with winter school we decided a fitting memorial needed to made, in a place where Ikamva can show the community we may be down but not out. We would all rise out of this and remember Mphumzi though the way he lived his life, his values and love for people, making sure that he lives on through all of us. He embodied a true ikamvanite lived his life with the values of Ikamva at his core.
Today he was memorialised on our wall of our office not only for everyone at Ikamva to see but everyone in the community to know IkamvaYouth is bigger than any one person, bigger than anything we could ever imagine, that no mater what happens we go on and only get stronger.
Big up to Ricky, Veronica and Vumanizumu!! We LOVE it! Your incredible talent in portraying Mphumzi brings back memories we thought were lost to us forever..
In an attempt to raise awareness of the environment and the fundamental reasons why we need to respect our surroundings we took a small group of grade 9 and 10 to the Kalk Bay beach clean up on 17th September to celebrate International Coastal Clean Up Day.
Long time tutor Tracey Drew came to help with her ERMteam and provided all the bags, gloves and snacks.
There was a real sense of purpose and when talking to learners about why it was important to pick up litter, there seemed to be a great awareness of the reasons why they should do it. When pushed on why they thought people didn’t do and why, particularly in township areas there is a lot of litter pollution they were far hazier.
Some said that people just didn’t care about anything beyond themselves. While others promoted the fact that people cared about others, the environment and animals but could not see the benefit of engaging in conservation activities. The main reason being that it does not have an immediate impact on their lives; stealing from the future to satisfy the present.
Is it a luxury to be able to care about conservation and environmental sustainability? The answers to this were manifold and would need a whole other blogpost.
As a learner stumbled across a shopping trolley filled with smashed glass bottles hidden at the back of the beach, the discussion turned to solutions. Again a multitude of suggestions were put forward and many faces were scrunched in thought – or maybe it was just the sun in their eyes!
The suggestion from most was that the motivation to pick up litter (or not to drop it in the first place) would only come if people saw the negative impact of it upon their own lives. It is great to come to a beach and learn about the importance of environment and not littering but when they return to their homes they enter into a community where it is not seen as taboo to through a plastic bottle into the river or the street. So, in order to change peoples’ habits of littering and polluting their environment they must be taught about the negative effects in their environment. To get people to start cleaning up the townships you have to start cleaning up the townships; make it visible and educate along the way.
Obviously the day made the learners and myself think a lot and hopefully ERM will assist in organising many more activities of this sort.
‘We’re really going places’ Drama Club
The drama club started in Masiphumelele several months ago and with their performance of a scene from Broken Promises, an exciting new book launched by non-profit Cover2Cover, they have found local fame.
They have already performed at the Masiphumelele Library, Franschoek Literacy Festival, Matthew Goniwe High School, and Open Book Festival Cape Town. Phumza Kibi is a member of the group and was asked to be the cover girl for their latest book ‘Sugar Daddy’. The posters are up in the library, at school and obviously in Phumza’s house!
Cover2cover provided each member with their own copy and profuse thanks for their involvement.
Cover2cover is a fresh new publisher dedicated to filling a need in the South African book market: popular fiction relevant to the lives of the millions of township teenagers. It is making a huge difference toward creating a culture of reading in South Africa, particularly amongst township youth. The eagerness that Ikamvanites have approached these books has been fantastic. Reading and re-reading copies that are already well-worn.
Cover2 Cover made an initial donation of 10 books to Masiphumelele Library and have been kind enough to offer a donation to other IkamvaYouth branches.
The popularity of the books and their demand has demonstrated that there is a need for relevant literature aimed at this target audience. However, these books shouldn’t just be distributed in townships as the issues raised are relevant to all teens. In a way this exciting social entrepreneurship organization could have a profound impact on the way youth in South Africa read as well as building understanding and relationships between each other. It is wonderful to be a part of such an exciting venture.
The drama club are busy scripting the whole of Jealous in Jozi so that they can put together a full drama performance – watch this space!
As the rain poured down, there was a fear spreading amongst us that no one was going to turn up; left with an empty library with rain tapping depressingly at the windows…
Thankfully, our fears were completely unfounded. More than 2500 students braved the weather and came to the Harare Library on Friday afternoon to explore their post-matric choices. The majority of students were Grade 12s but there were also a large number of Grade 11s, some Grade 10s and even some Grade 8s. It was great to see the younger learners beginning to think about their futures from a young age.
The queue to sign up for the workshops delivered by Jean Alfeld, Sizwe Matoti and Lindela Mjenxane
IkamvaYouth’s founding motto is one of future oriented thinking and pro-activity. The Careers Indaba is a fundamental step in fostering this mind set in the youth of South Africa. It is challenging to dream of a better future and to aspire to goals without knowing the realities of these goals and the opportunities that are available.
Universities, companies, and NGOs from all over Cape Town attended the fair. They did not merely provide factual information about careers and studying opportunities, but they also conversed with these young people and delivered a message of hope and possibility. This message is crucial for youth who are the victims of poor education systems and who live in a community plagued by poverty and all its products:
‘Academic failure is a consequence of the beliefs that students hold about themselves and about their ability to have control over their environments’ (G. Hutt & F. Pajares)
IkamvaYouth focuses on changing the mindset of youth, to think beyond their immediate circumstances and to believe in themselves and the possibilities that their futures hold.
When interviewed by The Sowetan reporter on Friday both Equal Education and IkamvaYouth agreed that this event is vital for youth in township schools and must be expanded. Tsepo Khanye, (NSFAS representative) also agreed: ‘This is a fantastic event and is well patronised. We need to make this bigger and longer, we need to get more youth exposed to it. Next year we should partner and hold something at Oliver Thambo hall to build on this success.’ Lets hope!
It was inspiring to see that there was appreciation for the event, both from exhibitors as well as students. Many learners commented at how much they had gained from the experience. An un-named Grade 12 from Mfuleni High School commented that ‘I have so much to think about now. About my future and about how I can get there’. More events of this nature are needed to make more youth believe that there are accessible and obtainable options for their futures.
Equal Education was the partner on this event and produced amazing publicity materials and helped to organize the day. IkamvaYouth is hugely appreciative to Ntshadi Mofokeng and her team for making it happen! A huge thank you to Lulama Langeni from the Harare Library for letting us take over her space for the whole day!
In the Business Day this week (7 June 2011), economist Peter Montalto finds inspiration in the aspirations of Ikamvanites. Montalto refers to his experience of visiting the Nyanga branch of IkamvaYouth a couple weeks ago and the impact this has had on his perspectives of South Africa and how important it is that we foster aspiration in our impoverished communities.
He writes,
In Nyanga, Ikamva Youth is working in the heart of the community in a local library. An army of enthusiastic volunteers, many of whom went through the project themselves, and a close connection with local universities provide the drive behind the project, and the energy comes from the leaders. Visiting the project, I saw young people hungry to learn, help each other and take advantage of the services Ikamva offers them. Most interesting, though, was that at its heart the work Ikamva is doing and the difference it makes is very simple — it is about providing a spark of hope, a path of opportunity and role models to look up to, all triggering aspiration.
The most basic tragedy of the townships is not even high unemployment (about 60% in Nyanga) or the conditions — it is a lack of aspiration. The encouraging thing, which Ikamva Youth has shown, is that though role models and simply providing information (and implicit incentives) about what options are available for youngsters and what they can achieve in life by putting the effort in at school, this aspiration can be ignited, grades can be improved and lives can be enriched. Once aspiration has been sparked, a basic entrepreneurial spirit in those who live in the townships causes a multiplier effect and youngsters then want to work hard, giving up time after school to be part of the programme, and so have a larger part in driving their own destiny. Much of Ikamva’s work relies on volunteers, who have been through the programme and then want to return to give something back.
I met Phillip and Thobela, two young people who had grown up in the township, been through the charity’s programme at school, got good enough grades to go to university, and now volunteer with the charity and are going on to great things. As an economist, I was delighted to find a common understanding with Phillip, who is passionate about econometrics. He is doing well at university and looking to go on to, for want of a better word, a “normal job” using his interest in statistics for the government or a company. Thobela, who now sits on Ikamva’s board, is passionate about chemistry. Getting into a good university allowed him to go on a study exchange to the US, and he now wants to become an academic teaching what he loves, a bug he has caught from his experience with the charity. Creating role models can become a virtuous cycle.
From my visit, I learnt many things. The issue of “untapped potential” is a much broader concept for SA than I first imagined. Government policy must be geared to providing the incentives and structure for personal aspiration of youngsters through mentoring and additional support in schools.
For the full article, visit http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=145012
“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.
Lloyd Lungu