Susan Godlonton

Deputy Director

Online member for 2 years 50 weeks

Susie joined IkamvaYouth in 2004, and has been an integral part of the organisation's growth and development since. Her responsibilities have included coordinating day-to-day operations, organising special events, proposal writing and mentorship of learners. She instilled a passion for maths in many of our learners and helped start up the second branch of IkamvaYouth in Nyanga. Due to the collaborative nature of our way of working, she has been actively involved in most aspects of the organizational tasks but shared the responsibility with the rest of the team. Due to her recent relocation to the United States to pursue further studies, her role has changed, but not as much as one would think given that she is so far away. While she is still involved in many tasks including proposal writing, data analysis, webmastering and general administration, she also provides advice to the core team on how to handle complicated situations.

Explaining why she is a core team member of IkamvaYouth, Susie says “When you meet and befriend youth with the motivation that many of the IkamvaYouth learners live by, it is difficult not to want to do more than just tutor. The deeper one's interaction becomes the more obvious the need is to do more and dedicating ones time to it seems like the most natural thing to do when one truly begins to understand how unjust our society is. I also believe firmly in the “pay-it-forward” mantra and hope that by instilling such values in our youth our impact can be so much greater in changing South African society to one where individual's care about their community.”

Susie is currently pursuing her PhD in Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan in the United States of America. She has a MA in Economics from UCT, and previous work experience includes working on a number of research projects based at UCT ranging from health economics to unemployment and education issues. She was also involved in an evaluation of the South African government's Land Reform policy which is also aimed at correcting injustices of the past. Susie was a lecturer at the University of Cape Town in the Economics department 2005 – 2006 and also has extensive experience in tutoring in Economics.

Describing the impact that being an ikamvanites has had on her life, Susie says “Being a member of IkamvaYouth has become integral to my life, all my news is related to Ikamva, my research is related to problems faced within Ikamva, all my friends seem to be centered around Ikamva. It has essentially taken over my life and even in absentia doesnt change the consumption of Ikamva by my thoughts! Ikamva has taught me so much. It has taught me how to be a leader (something I never thought I was capable of), it has taught me the power of caring, and constantly makes one aware of the possibility of change if everyone just did something small. It just shows how useless and unfounded the attitude of “I can't change anything” really is! It has made me acutely aware (and continues to remind) me of the injustices of our society and the lack of recognition afforded to them particularly regarding the inequality of opportunity. I believe passionately in the equality of opportunity and believe that IkamvaYouth is successfully affecting change in line with creating such equality in South Africa. I believe that there is a dedicated team who are passionate about structural change and not part of the development industry hypocrisy that exists in too many development agencies. Ikamva continues to teach me new skills and beliefs and open my eyes to new obstacles to overcome, and it would be difficult to stop this learning and emotional path that I have started.”

Susie hopes to complete her PhD as quickly as possible and return to South Africa. At the moment she is interested in pursuing research and advocacy work in line with some of the issues faced by IkamvaYouth and its learners, particularly education, unemployment and HIV/Aids. She believes that research is a powerful mechanism in influencing policy which undoubtedly would change the trajectory of many disadvantaged youth. Combining research with continued grass-root organisational involvement, she hopes to maximise her contribution to the transformation of South Africa.