Dancers showcase their skills. Photo: Nondumiso Ntsengentsu

Many South Africans have dreams, desires and interests that they are unable to pursue, due to the limited availability of information in their community. Faced with this challenge, they often lose hope and begin to believe drugs and alcohol abuse as well as violence and crime are the only things that help them to feel fulfilled. With increased focus on personal development and access to information it would be possible for community organizations to help community members fulfill their dreams and avoid the pitfalls of substance abuse and violence in their own lives.

Dance for all, an Athlone based Outreach Programme, looked at the challenges facing community members and came up with a solution. They aimed to offer children in historically deprived communities with an opportunity for enjoyment, upliftment and promotion of self – esteem through the medium of dance, as well as training for young people who hope to become professional dancers. This has lead to the development of a unique, indigenous dance company that embodies creativity and culture. They also offer these classes at other service points in the surrounding townships of Gugulethu, Nyanga, Khayelitsha and Langa.

Eight dance teachers from the United States (US) are expected to come and share their dancing skills with participants.  The list of visiting teachers includes founder of the LEAP programme at St Mary’s College Claire Sheridan, a regular visitor to Dance for All, Kristine Elliot, Geren Scribner, Lucy Van Cleef, Olivia Ramsay, David Tamaki, Annie Colbeck and Alejandro Piris Nino. They will work with students over the next two weeks designing and producing an on-site dance that includes movement classes, repertory and choreographic workshops.

Anyone who is interested in this amazing dance experience is exclusively invited to two performances offered by this initiative from Friday 08 July at 16:30 or Saturday, 9 July at 11:30 in their Dance for All studios in Athlone.

The entrance fee of R25.00 for an adult and one of R15.00 for kids will help you to get inspired and assist you in finding your new hobby.

We can all rise above our current situations and become what we want to be in lives!!!

Youth implementing solution to problems concerning their communities.Photo: Development Works,Flickr

Last month was Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), the largest service event in the world that mobilises the million of youth and children who are dedicated to the improvement of their communities through service and service learning.

This American initiative was established in 1989. It was organised by Youth Service America and its Global Youth Service Network and consists of international partners, sponsors and volunteers.

Every year, more than 100 countries and millions of children and youth work together with schools, youth organisations, nonprofits, community and faith-based organisations, volunteer and national service programme, government agencies, faith communities and other individuals to tackle the world’s most critical issues and change their communities on Global Youth Service Day.

According to gysd.org, during the weekend of April 23-25, 2010, millions of youth took active part in thousands of service and service-learning initiatives in order to solve problems concerning their communities.

Check out some interesting stats from the website:

 Volunteers participated on 6 continents.

 3,091 projects registered on GYSD.org.

 648 grants disbursed to youth, nonprofits and schools, totaling $716,000.

 Thousands of media placements with close to 2 billion media impressions.

 1,165 local, state, and federal government officials with 35 state proclamations; 27 co-sponsors for the U.S. Senate resolution; 44 co-sponsors for the U.S. House resolution

Get involved!

A female engineer works at the Volkswagen South Africa plant in Uitenhage. Very few women have been given the chance to possess such high level skills. Photo: Media Club South Africa

Many training programmes exist in South Africa with the aim of empowering women, but most women are still not gaining the marketable professional skills they are meant to from these initiatives.

The Sowetan reports that it was found in a study commissioned by Policy Analysis and Capacity Enhancement and the Human Sciences Research Council (Republic of South Africa), “that women, particularly those from the rural areas, were still not benefiting from training programmes aimed to empower women”.  In other words, although 51% of South Africa’s population is female, the progress of development in South Africa is not yet fully inclusive and has been effectively reinforcing the predatory patriarchy of the old South Africa.

Public awareness campaigns on high level skills training for women should be improved. Photo: Media Club South Africa

In the light of these disappointing findings, Baleka Mbete, the national convener of the Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa, challenges the purveyors of development and the skills revolution to concentrate on gender inclusive standards and to commit to supporting women to gain the skills necessary to break into traditionally exclusive fields that are key to economic development such as engineering and finance.

Although women are involved in political decision making, their depressingly low rates of involvement in high level skills-based training shows that there is a gap in communication between those who implement the skills training programmes and the female public.

Some suggestions offered to close this gap are to increase gender sensitive legislative spending, to improve the implementation of public awareness campaigns for high level skills training, and to commission a mentorship programme for school girls, so as to encourage participation in scarce skills training programmes and enrolment in applicable university degree programmes.

Minister Naledi Pandor says more should be spent on research. Photo: World Economic Forum via Flickr

Not enough money is being spent on research and development in South Africa.

This is what Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor said when she presented the department’s National Survey of Research and Experimental Development report for 2008/2009 yesterday.

BuaNews reports that even though R2.4 billion more was spent on research and development than last year, the government’s target of spending 1% of GDP on this field has not been met.

This year R21 billion has been spent on research and development. According to Pandor, President Jacob Zuma wants spending on this field to increase to 1.5% of GDP by 2014.

Spending on research is also divided between many different sectors. The division is as follows:

• Engineering Sciences = 24.4% of total research spending
• Natural Sciences = 20,6%
• Medical and Health Sciences = 14.6%
• Information and Communication Technologies = 13.1%
• Applied Sciences and Technology = 9.1%
• Agricultural Sciences = 5.5%
• Social Sciences and Humanities = 12.5%

It is estimated that there are 1.4 researchers for every 1000 employees in South Africa, which comes to about 19 384 researchers. There used to be 1.5 researchers for every 1000, so this trend is quite worrying to Pandor. In Argentina the rate is 2.9, in China 1.9 and in Russia 6.4.

To increase this number, Naledi said that there would have to be a focus on producing more post-graduate research students.

These sentiments were echoed yesterday by Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande when, according to The Times he said at the National Skills Summit that there is a need for: “high level skills in engineering, animal and health sciences, physical and life sciences and teaching; and research, development and innovation in human capital”.

With eight years of experience in social science research, Creative Consulting & Development Works is conscious of the importance of research in the South African context, to determine needs for development and to evaluate the impact of current social development projects. It is definitely a field that deserves attention, especially in developing countries.

A Gugulethu youth discusses some key issues. Photo: Gugulective via Flickr

The youth of Gugulethu are very involved in political and civil society organisations. In fact, the majority of youth participate in development issues in this township situated 15km from Cape Town. This is exceptional in an era where youth are often thought to be apathetic.

The involvement of youth in the community of Gugulethu is largely due to the work of the Gugulethu Youth Development Council (GYDC) which has been operating in the area since 2008.

The Municipal Wards of Gugulethu came together to form a relevant vehicle that will help youth to take active part in development. They looked at the challenges that are faced by today’s youth and established the Council.

The Council members want to see young people of Gugulethu working and going to tertiary institutions. Their goal is to inspire youth to be  energetic, passionate, focused and hungry for success.

GYDC is an umbrella organisation that represents youth from different sectors for example Sports, Politics, Arts and Culture, Safety and Security, Social Services, Health, Education and Agriculture, to name a few.

The goal of this organisation is to promote and protect different cultures in Gugulethu. The Council is very committed to this goal; in 2008 they mobilised young people from high schools and primary schools to march against xenophobia.

Youth development is of great importance to Creative Consulting & Development Works. Two of our team members have been trained to deliver life skills education to youth; we were contracted by the City of Cape Town to present a cultural diversity workshop to disadvantaged youth; and we have also before worked with Mamelani Projects, which runs youth development programmes.