IkamvaYouth is very lucky that for the past two months 8 lucky ikamvanites has had the opportunity to be part of a film-making course with Reel Lives. The film-making course is being facilitated by Leah Sapin, Director of programs, and Lyle Kane, the Executive Director. Both Leah and Lyle are from New York and they have brought along with them very expensive photography equipment to help our learners tell their stories.
Reel Lives uses media to support education, empowerment and social change. Their approach consists of an integrated set of programming that achieves both depth and breadth of service. Each student learns the skills associated with documentary filmmaking, from cinematography to narrative development and non-linear editing with Final Cut Pro. Each young filmmaker is engaging with their own lives through film. Executive director and former teacher, Lyle Kane said, “Working with these young filmmakers in Cape Town has been amazing both personally and professionally. The power of their stories will have an impact on anyone who sees these films, and the process has proven to us that our model of training is transferable. Our work dovetails so wonderfully with the concept and practice of IkamvaYouth’s work.”
“Reel Lives has been very useful to my life. It supported me on the huge challenge that I use to be afraid of. Now I am at the top of my life. I have accepted and know myself better,” said Kuhle Riti, one of the lucky Ikamvanites. The Reel Lives project has started as an idea to show the world what really happens in South African townships from an insider’s perspective. Most documentaries tell stories from the outside, but by equipping the learners with the skills to make their own documentary, they give the world a personal view of what really happens.
Students are not just taught in a classroom setting, but they are taught how to handle the film-making equipment and shoot their documentaries on their own and in a group. This teaches the students how to work on their own, but also how to look after expensive equipment and will stand them in good stead later on in the lives.
Join us on the 24th of November 2012 for the premiere of the documentaries. More details will follow, so watch this space.
It is often said that there is a time for everything under the heavens. This is day number 4 at the IkamvaYouth National Strategic Planning Workshop. It has been a rollercoaster four days. At the heart of it all has been the dynamic; driven and extremely passionate Ilana…our trainer and coach. Today the focus was on coaching skills. The emphasis was on coaching being a very liberating tool when applied correctly. That people should learn to listen with their whole self; body; mind and heart. This is especially true for our learners who need to have their voices liberated. The coaching lessons are geared towards equipping us with the necessary skills to help our learners to open up and deal with their issues; when they need to.
The one on one sessions with group members gave us an opportunity to practise and also recognise areas that we need to work on. We need to make a conscious and concerted effort to be able to apply what we have learnt. This includes working on our body language; tone of voice and doing away with any preconceived ideas that we might have about particular situations affecting our learners.
The most important lesson we took away today is that when dealing with our learners we have to suspend our pasts; our current situations and be completely present…for them. We need to make sure that we do not put them in a situation where we project our views and feelings onto them; forcing them to see the world through the windows of our shattered souls; knowingly or unknowingly. What they need is for us to create the emotional as well as the physical spaces they need to be the best that they can be. They need us to create platforms where they can write their own life stories. There is no greater gift that we can give them; except; maybe; for the free hugs that were offered by the Ikamvanites this morning.
Who said young people couldn’t create, direct, produce, film and act in their own movie.
About 30 Ikamvanites in Gauteng had the opportunity on Saturday 22nd of September 2012, to go onto a professional movie set in Johanesburg at The Home Movie Factory and create their own master pieces.
The Home Movie Factory is an initiative created by Michael Gondry upon the idea that filmmaker creativity should be cultivated and shared as much as possible. Michael said,“I don’t intend nor have the pretension to teach how to make films. Quite the contrary. I intend to prove that people can enjoy their time without being part of the commercial system and serving it. Ultimately, I am hoping to create a network of creativity and communication that is guaranteed to be free.”
The Ikamvanites arrived to a ready-to-use film set and equipment which made an infinite number of storylines possible. The learners got to work independently and had creative control over all aspects of the movie and this included the genre and title of their film, the script, the acting and actual filming.
After three hours, the learners were able to see a screening of their film and were given DVD copies of the final product.
WOW is all I can say. It was amazing experience! We definately have some very creative young Ikamvanites here in Gauteng.
Saturday the 15th of September will remain a memorable day in the history of the Nyanga branch as we held our first ever alumni meeting .
The purpose of the meeting was to launch the IkamvaYouth alumni program, aimed at connecting our alumni at tertiary institutions and finding ways of supporting them so as to ensure higher levels of throughput at university. The alumni program is being piloted at the Nyanga branch and will be rolled out to other branches and the rest of the country where IY has branches.
Mr Richard Wells facilitated the meeting, workshop-style with a group of alumni and current volunteers. The group shared personal experiences about learning to adjust to tertiary education, highlighting the need and importance of an IY alumni program. Melikhaya Tshitshiba of the class of 2008 noted that an alumni group would be invaluable to Ikamvanites in tertiary since there were still many hurdles to scale at university, once Ikamvanites made it there.
A very warm thank you to Mr Richard Wells, our alumni and volunteers who made the meeting possible.
This past Friday finally saw months of preparation and planning for our annual Career Indaba come together in a hugely successful day. Over 1800 students, parents, and community members flooded the Zolani Centre hall in Nyanga to explore their post matric choices and job opportunities.
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.
The event was open to high school learners from around Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Masiphumelele and surrounds, who came together to think about their futures and really take their lives into their own hands. They were informed not only about their career options, but also attended workshops on financial literacy by Capitec, and CV writing, interview skills and online CV development through Career Planet.
Over 25 Universities, companies, professionals and NPOs from all over Cape Town attended the Indaba as exhibitors. 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: IkamvaYouth focuses on changing the mind-set of youth, to think beyond their immediate circumstances and to believe in themselves and the possibilities that their futures hold.
The day was an inspiring success, with many learners and exhibitors commented at how much they had gained from the experience. Axolile, grade 10 from Sizimisle Technical High School said the most important thing he learnt is, ‘to know what you want to be in life and be dedicated, this will for sure get you to be where you want to be. ‘ While Sizalobuhle from Sinako High School said that, ‘ the Career Indaba helped me learn more about my dream career of being a lawyer, where to study and how to get into the best courses and universities. I also found out about how to apply for bursaries, and how to manage my money through the workshops.’
To organize an event of this size we partnered with Equal Education in helping to organize exhibitors and set up the event, and SAEP and the Department of Social Development joined the crew. We are also hugely appreciative to Mxolisi and his team at the Zolani Centre for the use of the hall and surrounding spaces.
It may have been about 2 months ago since we’ve had our winter school programme at the Masi branch, but yet it feels like 2 weeks ago. We hosted it at the Masiphumelele library, which is also our venue for the homework and tutoring sessions. Despite all the challenges we faced during the preparation of the programme, and with the help of our World Teach, local volunteers and Masi library staff, we managed to deliver an awesome winter school for our 87 learners…filled with tutoring and great workshops, from Creative Writing to Life Science experiments.
Besides the tutoring sessions that took place in the mornings,
The ever so handy Answer Series books for Grade 10 – 12.
This is what also went down during the afternoons
- Nadia Kimmie offered her skills and ran a pottery workshop with some of the learners (below is some of the work the learners did themselves),
Creativity at its best, right?
- A leadership workshop ran by Nico. This helped the learners a lot in boosting their confidence, taking initiative, and to always rise to the occasion.
- Ros and Dorothy from Fundza as well as Kate (a volunteer from World Teach) facilitated Creative Writing workshops for the learners. At the end, the learners were able to write their own poems as well as short stories. You’ll never know maybe the next Harmony High Series book will be written by an Ikamvanite…Watch this space!
Ziyanda Mwanda conducted Life Science and Chemistry experiments with the science learners. Here are some of the experiments conducted: looking at mitosis and understanding the process, testing for the presence of starch, observing osmosis using plant tissue, what are acids and bases – using household products and food. HIP2B2 got the learners thinking on their feet…who said math and science was boring? Learners had to conduct fun experiments and the team with the best results won a prize.
Siobhan Hayes (our Canadian intern) facilitated entrepreneurship workshops where learners knew more about how to start a business, marketing, and on the last day of the winter school programme the learners (Company name: Popcorn Divas) sold popcorns to their fellow Masinites.
Capitec Bank ran a financial literacy workshop whereby learners got to know the importance of saving money and why one should budget.
The UWC HIV/AIDS Peer Education Programme joined us and their peer educators ran a health and life skills workshop. As we know, the youth is involved in risky behavior, so the learners learnt quite a lot and importantly, how to take care of themselves. OIL Sexual Health also ran a sexual education workshop. The Live Mag team also took part and ran a media and arts workshop.
ERM (Environmental Resources Management) teamed up with the learners and got to work on an Environmental Management Plan for our branch, which looks at the environment and sustainability. The learners also got know more about careers in the environmental field, thanks to ERM.
Mathew (from the Cape Leopard Trust) took some of the learners on a hike at Silvermine where they got to know more about nature and the environment and also preserving it.
Thanks to Nick Jones for facilitated a history workshop, Nate and Buhle who ran a debating workshop with the learners…philosophical stuff I tell you. Fatima (a Pilot) ran an aeronautics workshop with the learners, where they got to know more about airplanes.
And all of this was just some of the things that happened. All the hard work put in was really worth it at the end. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO WAS PART OF THIS AMAZING TWO WEEKS!!! Those above-mentioned are just a few of them. The winter school wouldn’t have been that awesome without you.
Lloyd Lungu