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
IkamvaYouth is having a FOODIE AUCTION. Have a look at the:
foodie_auction_catalog.pdf
…and while the days away deciding what to bid on!
Ever wanted: A dinner for two at that you-have-to-book-a-year-ahead restaurant? A private cooking session for you and a friend with one of Cape Town’s top chefs? To learn how to make chocolate ttruffles? A backstage pass to a busy restaurant kitchen, the real story all unconfidential? All those wish items from Yuppiechef to kickstart your gourmet kitchen?
On the 24th March at the Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street at 18.00 come along to the IkamvaYouth Foodie Auction and have the exlcusive opportunity to bid and win all these things and many more. An auction of exuberant, exceptional and highly erudite taste hosted by comedian Rob Van Vuuren.
Come and enjoy ALL this, with one goal in mind: raising awareness and funds for IKAMVAYOUTH
All the profit from this event will be used during IkamvaYouth’s Winter School’s and excursions for Gold learners. IkamvaYouth values commitment over anything else and to incentivize the committment of the learners we reward the top attendees with excursions and events; museum visits, to beach clean ups, to documentary festivals. It is important to recognise these learners’ commitment. The funds raised will help to make these excursions a regular occurence and really encouarge the learners full commitment to the programme.
The Winter Schools take place at every branch and support the other programmes in an intensive 2 week fun filled extravaganza. Check out the blog posts from the 2010 Winter Schools. Students participate in career guidance, tutoring, entrepreneurship programmes, drumming, dancing, photography, and acting workshops, and educational excursions. This 2 week period culminates in the IkamvaYouth Talent Show!
will all be there, and so should you!
Other sponsors include:
The Kitchen and Richard Chamberlain are also supporting this event.
So come and support IkamvaYouth and bid on all the amazing deals that are on offer on 24th March at the Book Lounge!
81% access to post-school opportunities for IkamvaYouth’s class of 2010 More than half return as tutors and mentors for the next generation
Above: Happy matrics from the Gauteng celebrate their registration
Less than 10% of all South African youth access tertiary education (SAIRR study, 2009), and 41.6% of 18-24 year olds are not in education/training or employment (CHET,2009). It is no doubt largely those children living in poverty and attending under-resourced schools, as opposed to middle class children, whose reality is largely reflected in these statistics.
Yet 81% of IkamvaYouth’s passing matriculants have accessed post-school placements in 2011. This is despite the fact that the far majority of IkamvaYouth’s learners’ caregivers are unemployed, disabled or deceased. They have not let poverty and challenging home environments prevent them from enrolling at institutions including UCT, Wits, UKZN, UNISA, DUT, UWC, CPUT, to study fields such as Environmental Science, Electrical Engineering, Psychology, Business, Nursing, Computer Science, Social Science, Journalism and Physiotherapy.
68 learners from Khayelitsha, Ebony Park, Cato Manor and Molweni sat the examinations at the end of last year and 59 passed. Here are the matric results per province:
· 85% pass in Western Cape (of whom 48% achieved bachelor and 39% diploma)
· 85% in KZN (of whom 50% achieved bachelor and 45% diploma),
– 94% in Gauteng (of whom 63% bachelor and 25% diploma).
42% are now at university, 38% at colleges, 6% at technikons, and 6% have been awarded learnerships. These figures exclude the learners who failed and one learner who we are struggling to make contact with. Each of the 9 learners who failed will remain in the programme and retake their grade 12 exams, together with an additional 3 learners who have chosen to retake and improve their results.
IkamvaYouth instills a culture of learning which fuels the desire to achieve. It also encourages these learners to pay-it-forward and 51% will be volunteering at their branches to inspire the younger learners to emulate their successes. “IkamvaYouth has instilled a sense of determination and self-belief, and young people from township communities are truly being the change”, says Thobela Bixa, an ex-learner who is studying for his Masters in Chemistry at UCT. He pays-it-forward at the Makhaza branch and now sits on the organisation’s board of directors.
Ikamvanites all over the country are taking their future into their own hands. A person with a degree can earn almost five times more than someone without matric (CHET, 2009), and Mandela was spot on when he said “It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation.”
IkamvaYouth is thrilled to report that this year its two newest branches – Nyanga and Masiphumelele – will have grade 12 cohorts for the first time, and is looking forward to achieving similarly excellent results with many more learners in 2011 and beyond.
|
NATIONAL FIGURES
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Number of students
|
Percentage
|
|
|
Students who sat matric
|
68
|
|
|
|
Number of passes
|
59
|
86.76
|
|
|
Number of fails
|
9
|
13.24
|
|
|
Students that can’t be traced
|
1
|
1.47
|
|
|
Students retaking at the end of the year
|
13
|
19.12
|
|
|
No placement
|
7
|
10.29
|
|
|
Placements
|
47
|
81.03
|
|
|
Matrics excluding un-tracables and failed matrics
|
58
|
|
|
|
Post-school placements exc non-traceables and failed matrics
|
|
81.03
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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Of those students who have post-school placements
|
|
|
|
|
University
|
20
|
42.55
|
|
|
Technikon
|
3
|
6.38
|
|
|
College/ institutes
|
18
|
38.30
|
|
|
learnership
|
6
|
12.77
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paying-it-Forward
|
|
|
|
|
Students returning to volunteer
|
35
|
51.47
|
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Lets compare…
More than a week has passed since Ikamvanites along with their fellow Grade 12’s received their matric results. Whilst Ikamvanites are busy with registration and sorting out their accommodation etc we have taken the time to make some stark comparisons with the results achieved by our Ikamvanites and those achieved by the schools that they attend.
This is the first comparison of individual schools compared with IkamvaYouth’s results, and is for the Western Cape province. Firstly, this comparison helps to highlight that the IkamvaYouth pass rate in the Western Cape is 21% higher than the national average and 12% higher than the provincial average.
These figures are even more impressive when one takes into account that the provincial average is based on all schools, including well-resourced schools demonstrating 100% pass rates. If we isolate the schools attended by Ikamvanites (under-resourced schools), the difference is revealed even more starkly.
In every single case the IkamvaYouth pass rates far exceed the school pass rates. For instance, the majority of Makhaza learners attend Chris Hani Secondary School which performed poorly, with only 44% of matric students passing. However, all the Ikamvanites that attend Chris Hani passed. Such a disparity between school averages and IkamvaYouth’s results speak for themselves.
In addition if we break down these results into Bachelor, Diploma, and Higher Certificate passes, IkamvaYouth triumphs again by exceeding both the national and provincial averages. Furthermore the same pattern is displayed when comparing to individual school results; IkamvaYouth’s 37% BA pass rate smashes Chris Hani’s 11%.
So, when these learners are directly compared to the local schools, and compared directly within their context they are achieving overwhelmingly good grades. They are breaking the cycle they are escaping the trap that so many youth fall into because they fail to get that academic and social support that they need.
Please have your say about these results and comparisons.
| |
Western Cape IkamvaYouth |
National Ave |
Provincial Ave |
Chris Hani |
Sizimisle |
Sinako |
Harry Gwala |
Isilimela |
| No. of Learners who wrote: |
27 |
537543 |
|
245 |
108 |
206 |
166 |
202 |
| No. of Learners who passed: |
24 |
366072 |
|
107 |
68 |
73 |
75 |
125 |
| Overall Pass Rate |
89% |
68% |
77% |
44% |
63% |
35% |
45% |
62% |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Bachelor Pass |
37% |
24% |
31% |
11% |
19% |
2% |
10% |
14% |
| Diploma Pass |
33% |
27% |
30% |
18% |
25% |
18% |
19% |
19% |
| Higher Certificate |
15% |
17% |
15% |
15% |
19% |
15% |
16% |
29% |
| Fail/Supplementary |
15% |
32% |
19% |
56% |
37% |
65% |
55% |
38% |
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.
Lloyd Lungu