PRESS RELEASE FROM IKAMVAYOUTH

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM KHAYELITSHA TO SINGAPORE: IKAMVANITES EMBARKING ON INTERNATIONAL FUN(D)RAISING ADVENTURE

Cape Town, 6 November, 2006

IkamvaYouth's innovative approach to addressing inequalities in South African education has caught the attention of a group of Singapore-based volunteers. After spending a month volunteering for IkamvaYouth at the Khayelitsha branch earlier this year, Singapore-based Florence Jennings decided she wanted to do more. She has enrolled a group of dedicated volunteers in Singapore who, together with the South African ikamvanites, are working tirelessly to organise the fundraising trip of a life time!

Filled with the excitement and nerves that come with first-time flights and visits to foreign lands, eleven young ikamvanites will soon embark on the journey of their lives. The group will consist of volunteers, learners and members of the dynamic theatre group, Iqhude productitons, with whom IkamvaYouth has forged a familial bond. Together with the help of the Singapore team, the group will indulge in a ten-day frenzy of fundraising and fun. Scheduled events include participation in the Singapore Standard chartered marathon, wine tasting and coportate fundraising events, school visits and the filming of a documentary about the trip. Photographs taken by learners during our recent June/July holiday programme will be exhibited at most events. These, together with learners' poetry will be compiled into a special IkamvaYouth book which will also be availible for purchase.

The journey's main event will involve an auction at the Four Seasons Hotel to which the Singapore Chamber of Commerce, the American Club and parents and children of international schools have been invited. Generous Singaporean donations of auctionable wear (from lunches with inspiring and famous people to international art, unique jewelry and champagne cruises) and are pouring in. IkamvaYouth is appealing to the South African business community and philanthropists for more auctionable donations. If you would like to take advantage of this international corporate social investment opportunity, please contact Joy Olivier (+28 83 9513336).

Ultimately the trip aims to raise funds for the project, enabling it to grow and enrich the lives of more learners across the township. IkamvaYouth is functioning at full capacity in it's volunteer-based system, with a long waiting list of would-be students waiting for their capacity to expand.

ENDS ##

Contact
Joy Olivier
+27 83 9513336
[email][email protected]

About IkamvaYouth
IkamvaYouth is a community-based non-profit organisation that drives social change in South Africa by enabling disadvantaged youth to access post-school opportunities in tertiary education and job-based training. The organisation is entirely volunteer-initiated, -managed and –run and has been operating since 2003. IkamvaYouth provides supplementary tutoring, career guidance and computer literacy training and operates from the Nazeema Isaacs library in Khayelitsha, the Nyanga library and the Alice library.
www.ikamvayouth.org