Computer Skills Training

The Life Skills I group have completed their second Computer skills training session with Natasha Madhav. The group reported that they had gain a lot of confidence in working on a computer at the course and that Natasha made it "very easy to learn". The Life Skills II group, which studied under social worker Sam Savage, will be following in their footsteps soon.

Life Skills 2010

The second SABMiller Life Skills Course is currently under way at Masakhane. This Life Skills Course is being presented by social worker Sam Savage. Some of the Modules which will be presented are: Stress and Change Management, Motivation, Money Management, Starting your own bussiness, Getting a job etc. Eighteen members of the community ranging from teenagers to mature adults are attending this course. Village Power has had a very good completion rate with the previous Life Skills course with 13 out of 14 participants completing.

Upon completion of the course, participants will receive career guidance which will halp them to identify specific vocational skills training needs. Funding is then available from SABMiller to send participants for vocational skills training. The focus of this training is to identify Skills which will ahve an immediate effect on the income generating ability of participants.

The Life Skills Class of 2009 identified obtaining their driver's licences and basic computer skills as the skills which they perceived as essential to income genrating. It is especially important to note that the traditional perception of development where subsistance skills such as growing vegetables and farming were viewed as essential does not apply to the younger generation and to a community which however rural its setting might be, lies close to the metropolis of Gauteng. In a globalising world development practitioners and agencies should aim to bridge the technology divide through addressing the needs of young people to become part of the current technologically driven economy.

Career and Social assistance for the community by the community

By Sonja van der Vyver - Development Practitioner

Interventions such as Life Skills and vocational skills training and programmes such as the Women’s sewing and Craft Project which aims to increase the income generating opportunities for disadvantaged people need to be supported by sustainable structures and skills from within the community for the benefits of a project to continue after the development facilitators have disengaged from the community.

It is for this reason that Village Power is training several members of the community committee as vocational and career counselors, social support agents and HIV/Aids peer educators.

Lettie Sekobane is one of the community members who have volunteered to become a career guidance assistant. Lettie’s dream is to become a social worker and she is enthusiastic about the training which she receives from both Social worker, Sam Savage and Development Practitioner, Sonja van der Vyver.

Lettie is available to anybody in the community who wishes to increase their employability and assists people with the compilation of CV’s, goal setting and motivation. Lettie also visits vulnerable individuals in the community and encourages them to engage more actively in the decision making process regarding aspects of their own lives. What follows are verbatim exerpts out of Lettie’s reports on the people whom she assists:

Brother Ndundu

Note by Development Practitioner: Ndundu is a middle aged man who has been tending several rose bushes for years even when Masakhane had no water. He approached me a few months ago and asked me to bring him some black planting bags as he wanted to propogate his roses and other plants for sale

Lettie’s Report: Brother Ndundu has started growing roses and other plants a while ago. I went to him to see how he was doing. He told me that everything was going well. He has started planting and he is waiting for some of the seedlings to come up and grow. If they grow he will plant some more. He said that he needs some more black planting bags for all the seedlings and plants which he is planting.

Sister Mapula (not her real name)

Note by development practitioner: Mapula is a women in her early 30’s, alcoholic, jobless, single mother to two children. She lost a baby of two years old to HIV/Aids related illness a year ago.

Lettie’s Report: She said that she would love to bake some cakes (cookies) for the crèche children and that helping small children will be such a good thing to do in life. She said she is happy to see that there are people who really care about her and said we must visit her often.

Lettie’s report on Ndundu bears testimony to the fact that the people of this settlement are beginning to become empowered and engaging in enterprise development while her interaction with Mapula has clearly helped to prevent this young women from feeling alienated from her surrounding community. Lettie is truly commited to serving her community and her work continues. She will be attending a 3-month counseling course presented by Social worker, Sam Savage. This will enhance Lettie's natural aptitude for working with the people in ehr community.

The Women's project

The Women's Project at Masakhane Aims to transfer and increase skills and to provide the women of this settlement with possible income generating skills.

With the help of Su West from Village Power a number of women have been taking part in this programme. First of all everybody got the opportunity to learn basic hand sewing skills. wITH funds donated by ABI, Su bought 2 hand sewing machines and proceeeded to teach basic sewing skills. Mattresses and blankets, which will be used by thE creche children were completed and handed over to the creche.

With the help of the group's leader, Maria Selebogo, several women learnt how to crochet. For 5 weeks everybody crocheted simple blocks, which were used to create beautiful waistcoats and Handbags. These items will be for sale at a local gift shop called FairyNuff owned by Lauren Robers.

Su West will be developing the bussiness skills alongside their craft skills, teaching the women on this project basic bussiness skills such as costing, marketing and money management, using the expenses and sales of their products as practical examples. in this way the skills which the women will have acquired as part of this project coul be used by them to become self-employed and self-sustainable.

A SABMiller Life Skills course was delivered to 13 people at Masakhane. The modules which were covered included the following topics: How to manage stress and change Getting that job Effective communication skills Start your own bussiness Managing your money Getting motivated etc This course was attended by a group consisting mainly of people between 18 and 32 years although 64 year old Rachel Golden insisted that she couldn't possibly wait for the next Liefe Skills course (planned for later this year), because 'I might not live untill then and I need to get ahead right now. Career councelling was a continuous process throughout the 16 weeks of the course and culminated in a career ouncelling day at a nearby lodge. The main vocational skills needs for this group were for them to obtain valid drivers licences and to receive basic computer skills training. Three of the delegates will also be doing a basic chef's training course which will be presented in Magaliesburg in the next few month. The services of a driving school has been secured to give driving lessons at Masakhane in September. Two of the learners on this course are also being trained to act as employment agents for this community. This will help the community to be able to provide in their own needs for social services such as career counceling and job-hunting.

Two 4 Joy UNITED soccer team - pledge

This is a verbatim transcribed copy of a letter of motivation written by Seune Phiri, the captain of the soccer team at Masakhane. This letter was handed to me recently with the request to ‘please put it in our newspaper, maybe someone would like to help our soccer team to get going’.
(Sonja van der Vyver – Development Practitioner Masakhane)

This team is formed in Masakhane. We used to play our home games at Consu Engineering (a nearby farm) and some at Maanhaarrand (the nearby general dealer) because we didn’t have our own soccer field. Now we have found a place but it is not yet ready to be used because we are still looking for someone to help us with a scraper (grader) to remove the grass and to make it level.

Our team consists of 25 players and officials. We have no kit. When we play a game we borrow kit from the school. We have no sponsorship yet and no transport. Some of our away-games we are walking to and for some we hire cars to get there. Here at Masakhane are some good players, young ones, but we cannot get them to trials because we cannot afford the transport.

So maybe if we can get someone to help this team, then we can get to go far with football because it helps to keep us fit and away from crime, drugs and alcohol abuse. That someone will be highly appreciated.

Sometimes others (some of the players) play with (wearing) sneakers, shoes or even barefoot just to get the game moving. We really luv football and maybe one day we will make it to the top. We also (would) like joining league here but without the required equipment we can’t so please we are asking for your help.

Yours in Sports
Seune
(on behalf of Two 4 Joy UNITED)

Our first certificate ceremony

On Saturday 4 April 28 People from Masakhane received their certificates for having attended the Fire Training and First Aid courses which were presented by Firemed Training. Social worker Sam Savage from Village Power handed out certificate and congratulated participants on their achievemnts. The Masakhane Drama Outreach Group entertained visitors Jenni Gillies and Duncan Gordon from SABMiller plc and Paul and Sue West, volunteers from the Magaliesburg community, with an interactive drama scene which had HIV/Aids as focus. Everybody were laughing at the hilarious antics of Seune Phiri and Standford Sambo who skillfully involved Duncan (Gordon) McLeod in their little scene.(see more pictures on the Masakhane Drama blog,follow links).


Yvonne Kgope, the leader of the Masakhane Commitee was also presented with her cetificate in Public Management which she obtained through part time study from the University of Pretoria.
The 5 members of the Masakhane Participatory research team were presented with badges and letters of reference stating their involvement in the Masakhane Community research project.

A gift of a packet of home made biscuits were presented to each of the visitors and refreshing home brewed pine apple beer was passes arround.

A team of boys did a 'gumboot dance' and 5 girls did a traditional dance. All the children had made their own costumes.

It certainly was a wonderful day of celebration for this community and a great time was had by all.