Through Our Eyes, Ikamvanites' book of photography and poetry has just been released! The photographs and poems showcase some of IkamvaYouth's best creative talent, and provide unique windows into the lives of South African township youth.

Nick Fitt, with the help of many other ikamvanites, compiled some of the photographic and poetic talent into this beautiful book. Preview the first 15 pages of the book here.

Order your copy now, and support IkamvaYouth (half of the book price goes directly to the organisation). Your contribution will help us to continue offering our programmes and services to the youth and wider communities of Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Cato Manor, and enable us to expand our efforts towards the transformation of our country.

Viva, ikamvanites, viva!

The Wee Adventure Film Festival will be held in Cape Town on Friday the 29th of August at 8.15pm at the Labia Theatre on Kloof 68 Orange Street, Gardens. Entry fee is R50 and all proceeds of this event will go to Ikamva.

The Wee Adventure Film Festival is an adventure sports film festival. The event will be about one and a half hours long in length showcasing several short adventure sports films including BASE jumping, Sky Diving, Kayaking, Climbing and many more. This event is exciting and exhilarating so be prepared to for a white knuckle, rollercoaster ride!

If you have any questions about the event please contact: John@waff.ie

Our fellow Ikamvanites in London are organizing a fundraising party for IkamvaYouth at the details below. Details of the event are available on facebook: (http://www.new.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb#/event.php?eid=27975484746)

I hope there are Ikamvanites and friends of Ikamva who are in London who can go and take part in the event and as I have seen from the Facebook posting the Ikamvanites can go with as many friends as possible.

 

Written by Laura Egdorf

 

The 2008 Holiday Programme, hosted again at the University of the Western Cape, was a success, thanks to everyone involved. Ninety three learners attended the two-week program meant to enhance their knowledge, as well as to ensure that they were well prepared for the upcoming term and exams. Not only were students tutored in Maths, Physics, and English, but they were also introduced to new concepts recently added to the new curriculum, such as Evolution.

IkamvaYouth is based at the Nazeema Isaacs library, and our office is part of the building that houses the Desmond Tutu Hall in Makhaza, Khayelitsha.

As of Saturday, the hall was full with 550 people -- many of whom had not eaten since Thursday. On Sunday night the hall was filled with 700 people -- most of them Zimbabwean. Today (Friday 30 May), we have 400 people in the hall.

Today is their eighth day in the hall, and the situation is desperate. There are 20 infants, 3 pregnant women (one in severe pain), and people are beginning to get sick. They are all sleeping on the concrete floor, and we are struggling to ensure that everyone gets fed. Although TAC and other organisations are doing an INCREDIBLE job at coordinating civil society's response to the crisis, and ensuring that donations reach those in need, more help is needed.

Ikamvanites, led by Bongani Ndubata, are helping out at the Desmond Tutu hall, and purchasing goods most needed by the refugees, as soon as funds arrive in our account. Please help us to enable the members of the Makhaza community who are against these xenophobic attacks to help the victims of this disturbing violence. Please deposit cash into our account (with the reference "Tutu").

Alternatively, please bring donations to the hall, or drop off donations with TAC volunteers, at 50 Cantebury Street, off Roeland Street in Cape Town.

To find out what's most needed at the time of your donation, please contact Bongani on 0726483278, or IkamvaYouth on 021-3626799.

Generally, we need food, milk, baby formula, nappies, buckets, jugs, blankets, matresses, cleaning stuff, stoves, medicine, urns for hot water, money to buy airtime so that people can contact their families, etc.

Thanks for your help!

IkamvaYouth learners attended a Careers Expo in Langa on 1 May. Please click on "read more" to find out about the wonderful and interesting day that we had.

The launch of the computer lab in Nyanga is one IkamvaYouth's initiative to reach out to as many learners as possible, and provide them with the right tools. That Operation Fikelela has come to Nyanga just shows how IkamvaYouth is expanding. The lab will play a major role in changing the lives of many learners and enable them to shape their futures.

Recently, in our difficult times, and struggling to make ends meet, Frogfoot has come forward to offer a helping hand. They came up with a solution to some of our problems. They've decided not to charge us for moving the Amobia / Frogfoot / Inkululeko - sponsored Internet connection from Makhaza to Nyanga, and will help us out by providing this very important service for free! This is something great, and almost too good to be true. On behalf of all ikamvinites, I'd like to take this wonderfull moment to thank Frogfoot for what they're doing for us. I thank them for doing the right thing. This is a noble act that will have a positive impact on many previously disadvantaged learners. This will change their lives forever. What Frogfoot is doing will be a challenge to all the big companies out there to come to the townships and make a difference that will bring change to our nation and make it a better place to live in. I am proud to say that you are the real heroes, the world must acknowledge you for what you're doing. I salute you!

Ikamvanites got up to some pretty amazing stuff in 2007, and you can read all about it -- and see the pictures -- in our just-released annual report. From singing in Singapore, and collecting a prize from the President of Italy, to starting a new branch in Kwa-Zulu Natal, taking on Telkom (successfully!) and ensuring access to post-school opportunities for 92% of the grade 12s, the year was full and fantastic.

Some interesting facts about our web users over the past year since the relaunching of our website (20th Feb 2007 - 19th Feb 2008):

• 6,700 visits by 4,823 distinct computer connections
• 24,543 page views
• Visitors spent on average 6 minutes and 27 seconds on the website
• 53 % of visitors were directed to the site from search engines, 16.5 % from links from other websites, and the remainder was direct traffic

Luyanda Kota (known by most ikamvanites as uncle tux :)) has accepted the position of director for IkamvaYouth, Western Cape. Luyanda's commitment to and passion for IkamvaYouth, as evidenced in his work as lab manager, stand him in good stead for this challenging and important role. We are all looking forward to seeing the organisation continue to develop and grow with his leadership.