MPUMALANGA WINS YCAP FOR 2ND TIME IN SUCCESSION

Chief S.W Nhlapho Secondary School in won the 2012 YCAP (YOUTH CITIZEN ACTION PROGRAMME) held at OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg a week ago.

YCAP is an initiative hosted by Afrika Tikkun, an NGO focused on empowering South Africa’s most vulnerable children to develop into well-adjusted, productive members of society. It challenges Grade 10 learners to actively demonstrate what it means to be a good citizen. This programme is a partnership between Afrika Tikkun, Deutsche Bank, Heartlines and The Department of Basic Education.

Chief S.W Nhlapho Secondary School walked away with the top prize of R10 000 for their solutions to traffic and road problems around their school topic, which was presented by Thokozani Dladla and Sandile Shabangu. They had meetings with police, municipality representatives and learners whereby they educated the community about road safety.

They started implementing their ideas three months ago and since then, road signs have been repainted and there has even been a slight decrease in accidents within their community. “We interacted with local police stations, (and the) local municipality and they even gave us statistics whereby it shows that two people are killed every month, but after we implemented our idea in August we had one accident,” Thokozani Dladla said.

Afrika Tikkun CEO Marc Lubner gave his brief speech and thanked all the students for their contribution. “I want to thank every one of you for taking part in this programme, whether you win or lose I want to compliment you all for doing something with your lives. The future of this country lies in your hands, said Marc”.

Boesmanland high school from Northern Cape came second with their ‘parental involvement’ topic. Boesmanland School was represented by two grade 10 learners Darren Visagie and Mieshqah Cloete and they walked away R7 500. Representing Kwazulu-Natal was Banele Nanvalo and Awande Gumbi from Mowat Park High. They came third in their gender-based violence idea and scooped R5 000.

Amanda Blankfield, Marketing Events Manager of Afrika Tikkun who founded the programme with Deutsche Bank four years ago says, “The Youth Citizens Action Programme best demonstrates some of Afrika Tikkun’s main focus areas: youth development and strategic partnerships. What started out as a youth dialogue has now become a social action programme that Grade 10 learners from each of the nine provinces are invited to participate in by the National and Provincial Education Departments. Our NGO partner is Heartlines, as their booklet on values teaches the learners how to use project management skills to achieve results. We are so proud to have the programme sponsored by our loyal supporter Deutsche Bank Africa Foundation.”

Image1: All participants come together for a photo.

Image 2: Third place to Mowat High School learners: 2nd from left; Amanda Blankfield from Afrika Tikkun, 4th from left ,Jennifer Charlton from Heartlines and 5th from left, Mapula Kataka from Deutsche Bank.

Image 3: 2nd place Boesmanland Secondary learners with Amanda, Jennifer and Mapula

Image 4: YCAP 2012 winners Chief S.W Nhlapo High with their R10 000 cheque and trophy.