IkamvaYouth News January 2005

Nazeema Isaacs Library, Khayelitsha, South Africa

IkamvaYouth learners going places

Last year's grade 12's are being snapped up by higher education institutions, including UCT, UWC, CPUT and Rosebank college. 52% have already been placed, and many of these have been awarded scholarships and bursaries.

Congratulations to IkamvaYouth learners and volunteers for this fantastic result! It is great to see the organisation achieving its mission.

Outstanding results

IkamvaYouth learners achieved excellent results in their final exams. Although we are still collecting data from grade 11s, our matric results are outstanding. Ikamvanites performed significantly better than the matrics in the Western Cape province as a whole, with 34% passing with exemption and 27% passing with merit exemption.

 The extent to which learners' grades have improved since joining IkamvaYouth is phenomenal, and it is great to see that learners' and volunteers' hard work has paid off to the extent where learners have moved from E and D symbols to As and Bs. Two of our learners were the top learners at their schools.

The revolution of IkamvaYouth

Grade 11 and 12 learners, Lungelo Masiza, Ntando Ntuli, Axolo Qayi and Lungani Mondleki appeal to this year's grade 10's to join IkamvaYouth, and describe how being ikamvanites has helped them.

IkamvaYouth winners of GKP / WSIS ICT and Youth Award

The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) awarded $500 to IkamvaYouth for its Operation Fikelela (Operation Access). The project aims to leverage information and communications technology (ICT) for achieving its mission. Our ICT director, Jean-Paul Bauer, represented us at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia.

IkamvaYouth learners can do it

Vuyokazi Gama congratulates IkamvaYouth learners on their hard work this year, and describes some of the challenges facing ikamvanites as they build the foundations for their futures.

Application and acceptance bursary fund launched

IkamvaYouth is now accepting donations and applications for loans to cover the fees that accompany application to and securing a place in tertiary education.

Ikamva Legolayers participate in lego league competition

IkamvaYouth participated in the HIB2B²First Lego League (FLL), a tournament whereby learners create and program semi-autonomous Lego robots.

Prize-giving 2005

IkamvaYouth's prize-giving awarded its star learners (the most committed, the most improved, and the top achiever) as well as Susan Godlonton, our volunteer of the year, for her oustanding commitment and hard work.

Importance of taking subjects on Higher Grade

Zukile Keswa, one of last year's grade 12 learners, explains the problems that he is facing because his school does not offer Higher Grade (HG) Maths.

Successful e-literacy classes equip youth with skills, opportunities

Operation Fikelela kick-starts its e-literacy training programme in the IkamvaYouth lab, with new volunteers, Tino and Lundi, ensuring the sustainability of the programme for 2006. The free and open source (FOSS)-based curriculum is currently being documented and submitted to ISETT-SETA for accreditation, and will be further developed through a wiki.

From Khayelitsha to Silicon Valley

IkamvaYouth was selected to participate in Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Incubator. The incubator provides participants with a firm grounding in business skills so they can scale up their ventures efficiently and sustainably.

Holiday programme a great success

Susan Godlonton describes last year's jam-packed holiday programme, which included activities like mural design, art workshops, participation in a behavioural economics study and chess.

My experience as an ikamvanite

Clark Freifield reflects on his fulfilling year as a volunteer at IkamvaYouth.  

Thanks to our partners for their generous support

It is only with the help of our friends and partners that IkamvaYouth is able to provide its services free of charge to the youth of Khayelitsha, and to function as an organisation without funding. IkamvaYouth is very thankful in particular to the following partners for their important contributions:

• TheNazeema Isaacs Library, for its on-going support in providing a venue for our activities and helping us in important ways every day;
• Fahamu.org, for providing office space and Internet access free of charge; and
• Via Technologies, for donating a laptop.
  

About IkamvaYouth

IkamvaYouth is a by-youth, for-youth non-profit organisation that aims to drive social change in South Africa by enabling disadvantaged youth to access post-school opportunities in higher education and job-based training. Completely volunteer-initiated, -managed and -run, the organisation has three core programmes: supplementary tutoring; career guidance and life skills training; and e-literacy development. To find out more please visit our recently re-launched website.