On the 29th of June, at the Durban University of Technology Sports grounds, IkamvaYouth Umlazi and Chesterville branches held the first IYKZN Sports day.
The day was to be filled with fun activities for the learners and volunteers alike. The best part of the story is that ABI was to come on board and help out on the day. They came through in a big way. Not only did they provide balls, bibs, whistles, refreshments, juice bottles and T-shirts, they also brought staff members to volunteer and participate in the day’s activities, as well as a huge entertainment truck to keep the energy going throughout the day.
The ABI entertainment truck
The first order of the day was the 100+ learners and volunteers separating themselves into 4 teams. The teams, which were initially colour coded (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow), were tasked with coming up with a creative name, designing a flag, and coming up with a war-cry/song to represent their team.
The red team (Umlilo)
The green team (Izingqungqulu)
The blue team (Blue buuls)
The yellow team (Peace makers)
The day kicked off with soccer and netball knock-out tournaments running alongside each other. The ABI staff were deep in the thick of things, with some guys playing in the matches and others serving as officials. The netball matches were very heated, with guys and girls, volunteers and learners all getting in on the action. The same can be said for the soccer match, where 4 ABI employees were deep in the action. The matches were action packed and very diverse in terms of paricipation.
After the soccer and netball, we saw athletics going under way. With a 100m dash, 400m and 100m egg relay all being on the cards. Once again everyone stepped up to the plate, volunteers, ABI employees, and learners alike participated in every event.
The last part of the day was the indigenous games. The leaners played games such as marbles, tops, skipping rope and stones (amagenda). This was really fun for the learners, as these are games that are played in the townships.
throughout the day ABI provided us with bottomless refreshments, not a single person went thirsty. Special thanks to the ABI team for their presence, it was really felt. In closing we all cleaned up the grounds and left them spotless and to a group photo with everyone who was there.
Netball action
The Soccer players stretching
While all the Makhaza students enjoy the last week of their winter school holidays, taking a much needed break from the intense focused energy needed for winter school, the Western Cape matrics have given up their entire holiday to continue with tutoring, mentoring, exam preparation, and tertiary applications.
This week sees intensive academic writing and bursary application writing workshops being run by Rose and Francisca, two volunteers from Stanford university, as well as each matric filling out at least 5 application forms for tertiary. It’s only Wednesday and so far everyone has applied for UCT, TSiBA, UWC, CPUT, Northlink and a few for Stellenbosch University. All this interspersed with tutoring, tutoring and more tutoring (with the odd test thrown in..)
Big up matrics!! The end is nearly in sight, by giving up your holiday for this last gasp of intensive tutoring and mentoring it’s setting yourself up for a spectacular finish at the end of the year!
There are only a few days left, if you are interested in tutoring or mentoring the matrics, please email liesel@ikamvayouth.org, alternatively call Zukile on 021 362 6799
Funding from major corporate companies is always welcomed by organizations such as ours, as it means we can continue serving the communities we work in, in the best way we can. It is however so humbling and indeed encouraging when the employees of that company demonstrate a genuine interest and willingness to participate actively in their company’s social investment initiatives. ABI, is such a company, as demonstrated in the past few weeks.
On the 28th of June, ABI hosted a media launch, formally opening the doors of the new branch in Umlazi, which began operations in April this year. We were invited as honored guests at the event, which was quite exciting as we got to meet with various members of the mangement team, and had an opportunity to learn a little more about this amazing company.
ABI’s involvement in our winter school cannot go unnoticed. The day after the launch, ABI employees joined learners for their sports day, eagerly participating in all the events and getting to know the learners. ABI also got involved in our careers day, aimed at introducing learners to various career possibilities. The CSI team have been amazing, providing refreshments at these events, sponsoring t-shirts and water bottles for all the learners, as well as providing sound and sports equipment for the sports day.
As Tumi (Corporate Affairs Manager at ABI), said in her speech at the launch, “ABI does not just talk the talk, they indeed walk the walk”. ABI’s involvement in these few weeks is testimony to that. IkamvaYouth kzn is indeed privileged and honored to be partnering with not just a major company, but a team of individuals dedicated to the upliftmet of others!
Samkelo Nkosi speaking at the Careers Day
The ABI truck that provided entertainment and refreshments throught the day on Sports Day.
Winter school snuck up on us this year, and not in an unassuming king of way, kind of when a loud bang goes off next to you when you least expecting it kind of way Yes… just like that!
160 learners, 40 tutors, 3 busses and loads of enthusiasm, excitement and passion charged their way down the N2 to UCT Middle Campus for 10 days of learning, discovering and fun.
It’s hard to believe what we work so hard to plan for months before all ends seemingly faster than when it began! And with SO many amazing workshops, challenging tutoring times and passion from all the volunteers and learners it’s hard to give an overview of what happened this year, but I’ll try!
– Grade 11 and 12 chemistry workshops in the UCT Chemistry Labs – facilitated by Thobela Bixa, check out his incredible achievement here
– Tutoring for all the grades working through past exam papers and Answer Series books. With over 40 volunteers we achieved a ratio today of 1:4 learners per tutor! Talk about an intense time!
– PSH (Peers in Sexual Health) ran self-awareness workshops, while Sunstep got involved making alarms and facilitating other experiments with physics students.
– Rose, a volunteer from Stanford is working this week on a photography workshop, while other students got involved in deep debate.
– Andreas and his team from ERM, and Matthew from Cape Leopard Trust made sure the students got to grips with our environment, learning about how to make their immediate environment more sustainable, going for walks in Tokai forest finding a few wild animals along the way..
– Capitec ran some financial literacy training workshops, have a read about how they went here
– Nadia ran a very creative workshop where learners molded their own pots from clay (a little messy, a LOT of fun)
– Nkuli and the guys from Live Magazine were back this year for some photo shoot action, as well as creating content for their YouTube channel
– South African Astronomical Observatory ran workshops about what’s happening in our solar system, while the week ended off with Joy from UCT Wellness Centre putting our students through their dramatic paces presenting various health issues
Not to forget while this is all happening the Grade 11 & 12 students all ran through Operation Fikelela, a computer literacy program, while tutors set projects, homework and feedback sessions for all the grades.
Tuesday (26 June) in the first week also marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of Mphumzi Klaas, our friend, our confidant and a huge part of the Makhaza branch. We began the very emotional day with a very moving memorial service with a few people speaking, a video being show and most poignantly the choir singing moving the room to fresh tears as if one year ago was yesterday. And while the Ikamvanites once again balance grieving and all the madness that winter school brings, they did this instead of with incredible sadness and heavy hearts, but with a spirit of tenacity and perseverance they threw themselves into tutoring and workshops, with a renewed commitment to making this the best winter school possible, to show that through adversity and sadness, good can come, that people when united can make the impossible happen.
WOW! With so much happening, the biggest winter school IY has ever had finished with bang, and almost as fast as it arrived it was all over, classrooms packed up and cleaned, busses full to bursting on a day with some of the biggest downpour Cape Town has seen this winter, I can only begin to think of all the fun and excitement we can expect next year! Only after a loooooooooooong rest though…
A huge Huge HUUUUUGE thanks to ALL the workshop facilitators, tutors and learners – Your passion, commitment, excitement and leadership shown over these two weeks make this one of the best winter schools ever! Also to Lolita, Deidre and all that UCT for availing the space to us, BIG UP!!!
Activities at the Makhaza winter school are in full swing, with one of the Wednesday and Thursday morning sessions being financial literacy training presented by Capitec Bank to all the pupils. During these sessions, learners had the opportunity to share their career ambitions, and more specifically where they saw themselves in the next 10 years and what they hoped to save up for. Groups included pupils who hope to become financial risk managers, business owners, world travellers and computer scientists, to name but a few. When it came to the items they’ll be saving for, undoubtedly top of the list was a home for mom and flashy cars for themselves.
The Capitec Bank team then ran through the elements required to achieve those objectives, highlighting a key to saving is one’s ability to differentiate between what qualifies as a need and a want. The pupils shared some of their thoughts and understandings on the matter and it was determined that everyone’s needs and wants are different. For example, many of the pupils shared their views on the importance of education but whether education qualifies as a need or a want was a contested issue.
Other topics covered were drawing up a budget, making the commitment to stick to that budget and save, and opening a Global One savings account with Capitec Bank to manage that process. The session closed off with a Q & A where a few goodies were handed out.
Thanks Megan and your team!!
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It was a fun and educational morning for our learners as Capitec bank graced us with their presence at UWC. The aim of the workshop was to equip the learners and make them aware that there are always obstacles in every short or long term goal that they want to accomplish. The learners participated in exercises cultivating their knowledge about saving and budgeting, in order to overcome those obstacles and have greater success. Pumeza Joja, one of the tutors said, “The workshop was exciting and very informative; it gave the learners a sense of direction regarding what they are studying, and helped them have a plan of action in line with those goals”. The Capitec team also imparted budgeting skills together with teaching on how to differentiate between needs and wants. “Capitec has given me a skill that I’ll be able to use every day, especially when I’m working and earning my own money” added Noluthando Nkebetwana a grade 10 learner. Thanks to Capitec our Nyanganites are now financially aware.
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Lloyd Lungu