Its that time of the year again. We have reached that crucial midyear point. Umlazi started operations on the 14th of April 2012, tutoring began on the 23rd with just 18 learners. Winter School sees a number of 58 learners and 14 tutors making up the Umlazi team.
It’s been a very interesting time for us here in Umlazi, challenges galore but we made it through. When the branch started operating we sat with 18 learners for 2 whole weeks. We had to approach schools over again and convince learners face to face at assembly that we are here to help them. Our biggest ally in getting the learner number up to the target (50) has been the learners themselves. They are so happy with the help they are getting that they just seem to bring more and more of their friends.
We now sit with 58 learners in the space of 2 months and the number is set to grow with time. The great thing is that even the number of local volunteers is increasing. In the 2 weeks leading up to Winter School we have 3 new tutors from the neighbourhood come in and join 🙂
Looking forward to our first Winter School as a new branch.
Five International interns are at IkamvaYouth centres (Ebony Park and Ivory Park) in Gauteng for the next six weeks. Four of the interns are from India and one is from The Czech Republic and they have already begun to actively interact with the Ikamvanites in Gauteng. The Ikamvanites are excited to learn about the interns’ different cultures and it became evident after the Saturday tutoring session that the learners all wanted to be around our new visitors.
The interns are currently involved in helping to organise Winter School, cataloguing books in the library, tutoring and mentoring the learners.
IY partnered with an organisation called AIESEC which made the arrival and participation of these interns possible. AIESEC is the world’s largest youth-run led organisation. It is focused on providing a platform for youth leadership development. AIESEC offers young people the opportunity to participate in international internships, experience and participate in a global learning programme.
Our new interns are moving around with the motto, “Each one – teach one,” and they believe that this is a good platform for them to empower youths in South Africa.
As is becoming a tradition at all IkamvaYouth branches around the country, the Ivory Park Winter School was once again a roaring success. Special thanks to African Bank for helping fund the winter school programme. Click on the image below to download the full report.
During Winter School the Nyanga Branch was honoured by the presence of Nina who facilitated workshops for a week on Radio broadcasting and production.The learners took part in sessions where they were required to share life experiences and learn more about life from each other using the radio workshop and record their thoughts and interview each other.
Comment from a learner: “we learnt alot from the workshop and Nina and her team taught us how to use the microphones and how to record, I think I would like to be a radio presenter”
Comment from Nina: “The young participants were amazing, enthusiastic, and smart. For some, expressing themselves in English proved very challenging, but they were always checked in and present with the process. The revelations of radio were exciting for them too, handling equipment, recording their voices and playing it back in a very vulnerable public space. Considering time and language constraints, we covered two production modules that would best serve the workshops; interviewing and audio diaries”.
For the first time ever Nyanga had more than 20 tutors joining the Nyanga Winter school which was attended by 55 learners which helped us to experience a ratio of 1:5 (one tutor and five leaners)
I would like to use this time and thank all tutors who took part in our Winter School and all the people who volunteered their time and facilitated workshops for our learners. Thank you too to our partners and sponsors for making this important event possible: UWC, Fedics, Dr Peter Mills and the Answer Series.
I would like us to all share our experiences on this Blog and write about what we have learnt during the two weeks
So let me start: its been 1 year and 10 months since I joined Ikamva Youth and it feels like a life time, this was my second Winter School that I coordinated and 2011 was just something else!! Thanx to you guys
I had an oppotunity to work with really motivated young people who share the same values as myself and who are eager to see a change in the township where many of us where born, this was very evident in how many of us gave their time to the Winter School without asking much questions but joined in with the heart to help, for me it was two weeks of being inspired and motivated whilste running around like a headless chicken! lol
Trust me tutors if it was not for you guys, Nyanga Winter School would not have been a success!!!!
And ofcoz WE WON!!!
My name is Unathi and I am a tutor at the Makhaza branch of Ikamva and part of the winter school, I tutor many different subjects but especially accounting, business and economics. I’m currently studying at UWC.
Here is what my week has been like:
Tuesday:
My expectations from the two weeks period and how will it affect my future?
i expect students to bring questions, challenge the tutors on their different streams and make sure
they go home with a lot learned on that particular day.
I expect commitment from both management, tutors and well yes the students.
TUTORING- I spent time with a grade 12 learner tutoring one on one for economics, it ends productive.
Wednesday-
More tutoring, engagement with the students which are in my stream. the learners are challenging in terms of school work and in bringing questions for the next day.
WORKSHOPS- on the workshop I hear about stuff that I’ve never really knew, from the Jewish centre.
my experience- me well i knew little about the history of Germany and i never knew that the laws they had during Hitlers’ period of being president, some how were related with few laws the South African Apartheid Government made. GRATEFULL TO IKAMVA FOR THE WORKSHOP AND THE JEWISH CENTRE.
Thursday-
I’ve engaged with a learner who is doing his matric, I’ve noticed that we need a more time on his commercial studies i.e economics and business.
WORKSHOPS- in a group with the learners, we hear about LUCCA LEADERSHIP. The 1st hour of the session learners were not really engaging with the facilitators, but they got a break after that they were engaging- asking questions and answering when they are asked questions, after the workshop we get a chance to talk about what caused them not to engage, well they tell me they are too shy to speak english. We conclude that they need to practice their english all the time.
Now it’s Friday morning, tutoring is happening for all the grades in Maths, Science, History, Geography, Accounting, Business and Economics. The grade 11 science students have gone to UCT to participate in Science experiments, looking forward to the afternoon workshops!
There are many other streams and workshops happening which other tutors are involved in, you’ll get to hear about them from the others.
Unathi Smile x
Lloyd Lungu