The Ikamva Lolutsha Life Skills Programme is about young people and their futures. The Ubunye Foundation partners with young people and assists them in following their dreams by creating life plans that they can work towards and by supporting them to achieve their goals. Through the Ikamva Lolutsha Life Skills training, young people are encouraged to think and dream of the future they want. The Ubunye Foundation team then assists them in creating a life plan to work towards that dream.
These life plans could be to have their own business, finish their studies, or work towards a career, whatever it may be, the Ubunye Foundation is there to give them the skills and support that they need to achieve those goals.
We are also there to celebrate with them when they do achieve their goals!!
To gain some insight into the Ikamva Lolutsha Programme, we interviewed the Ubunye Foundation’s Training Officer, Lime Badu. Here’s what she had to say.
First, some background into the Ikamva Lolutsha Programme.
The Ubunye Foundation has always included young people in all its programmes. In 2018, Ubunye began a specific Life Skills training for the youth – the Ikamva Lolutsha Life Skills Programme.
The Ikamva Lolutsha Programme includes young people from rural communities in the Fort Brown village in the Sarah Baartman Municipality and villages all over Ngqushwa Municipality. The Ikamva Lolutsha Programme starts with the Ikamva Lolutsha Life Skills training, where everyone is encouraged to dream and to draw that dream into a plan for the future – a Life Plan. These young people are then supported, coached and encouraged to implement that plan and reach for the goals they have made.
The what, when and where of the Ikamva Lolutsha Life Skills Training.
“The Ikamva Lolutsha Life Skills Training is with the Ubomi Bethu Ambassadors, young women from different high schools, as well as youth ambassadors. These young people are from the Glenmore, Ndlambe and Qeto Communities. The training took place at the Pikoli Community Hall from the 21st to the 27th of March. Since the training deals with young people who are still in school, the training it done during the school holidays. The next training session is scheduled during the second semester school holidays. The aim is to get 80 participants involved in the training.”
The who and why of the Ikamva Lolutsha Life Skills Training.
“The programme targets young people in general but because the uBomi Bethu project looks at young women specifically, the training involves young women in the community.
Life Skills are a skill which most young people lack. They have very low self-esteem. One of the things that we start within the first two days, is that we let them think about what they would like to achieve in life. From there, we introduce the life plans which are questions that we set up for them to understand that when you have goals, there are steps you need to take to achieve those goals.
One of the activities that we have look at visualising your goals. So they draw or cut up magazines so they can see their goals every day and look forward to achieving them.
The Life Skills include, issues of trust, how to deal with criticism and conflict, communication skills as well as understanding that people have different perspectives and understanding that the negative things people say to them do not shape them.”
The long-term effects of the training.
“We have the process of interviews which helps them with self-confidence. To be able to believe in themselves and to also understand the outside world. They are often within the bubble of their communities and they do not have a broader perspective of the world and so, we are hoping that by giving them these tools, they can get an idea of how life is outside the community. Even with the challenges that they face, there is a way out.”
The challenges of managing a programme.
“There is always some challenges when working with the youth. The number of participants varies because if a person decides not to come on one day, they don’t come. The number of participants are not always the same every day. We then have to go back and update them on what they missed when they come for the next training session. We also have young people from different communities and so there are sometimes behavioural issues. Apart from this, there are challenges of transport and catering.”
The bigger picture.
It is about information sharing and also having an understanding of how people react to certain things out there. So it is about sharing what they learn and bringing awareness to their communities. They will have the tools to accept other people the way they are.
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