TSHWARANANG CENTRE

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In March Ali Smeeton travelled to Tshwaranang to meet Mama Sofia who started the Tshwaranang Center for the Disabled in 2001.

Having just retired, Mama Sofia found the Moemaneng community needed a caring facility for children and young adults with disabilities.  Mama Sofia opened the centre with five children and it now provides food, shelter and education to 40 persons with disabilities.

Last month Ali Smeeton was asked by Lynette, director of Sparta, to help Mama Sofia.  Mama Sofia and her volunteers were to be trained on how to provide an education for the children and adults and to find 13 wheelchairs.

Tammy Jordaan, an occupational therapist at the Arise & Shine Centre for children with disabilities in Umhlanga  and Margaux d’Hangest d’Yvoy,  an Occupational Therapist at the Ethembeni School in Valley of a Thousand Hills, KZN we brought in to help.

On arriving at the Centre, Ali was overwhelmed at the work Mama Sofia and her team were doing and also their need for assistance.  Mama Sofia as asked to list the top five things she needed and she mentioned: Tables, chairs, large nappies, plastic covered mattresses and big pots.  I Can! was expected to train the staff  but many basic needs were not being met.

It took six hours to measure the children/adults for wheelchairs.  And Mama Sofia and her team were trained on a caseload of educational games.

I Can! will return to screen the children/adults and separate them into an early childhood development, academic stream  and skills groups.  Mama Sofia will be assisted in designing design a schedule to ensure that each child/adult and their full potential.

Thanks to Sparta for sponsoring airfares and bringing I Can! to be part of the centre. Also, thank you to Tammy and Margaux for their help with the wheelchairs.  And finally, thanks to Ethembeni School and Arise & Shine.

G.U.D. FILTERS

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I Can! is proud to be associated with a company called G.U.D FILTERS. They have  taken on 14 of our learners for additional onsite training and  two went on to become permanently employed at GUD. GUD approached us recently to find them candidates again to meet their inter-racial quota. We found four gentlemen in record time who were hired immediately. We would like to thank GUD for giving people with disabilities the opportunity to work in this well established company.

The candidates employed are working in the warehouse packing filters into boxes.

I CAN is proud to say that our learners are not only completing learnerships but are also going on to be employed in meaningful jobs to sustain their lives.

GIVEN LIFE AND GIVING LIFE

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Katlego Gloria Moloto, 21, is one of our hygiene and cleaning learners in Centurion Branch. She was born with hydrocephalus disorder also known as “water on the brain”. This was discovered three days after her birth. When she was about two months old she had an operation to remove the excessive water, which was drained from her brain via a shunt. Thisshunt was left in her brain to ensure that there is not a build-up of fluid again, but it has caused epilepsy and recently in January she had a heart attack. Katlego’s upbringing has not been easy and her condition affected her learning ability. She left school during grade 9 because of memory loss.

After leaving school, Katlego started to pursue her passion in drama, poetry and dancing. Katlego started to take her life and health seriously by inspiring and motivating people to donate blood as she herself is a donor and a registered member of SANBS club 25.

Katlego said “I appreciate the life that I was given when my operation was conducted and was successful and that is the reason why I’m giving back, by giving a life to others.”

VALENTINE’S DAY

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a.    VALENTINE’S DAY

Valentine’s day is no longer a celebration of  romantic love exclusively, as it now embrace’s love of all kinds: Friendship, family and everything in between. Our learners celebrated valentines by sharing with us their talents like, singing, poetry, modelling and dancing.

On that day we discovered that indeed I Can! has  TALENT!!!!

b.     VALENTINES DAY – PARC DU CAP

On the 14 February 2014 Business Practice learners in Parc Du Cap had a valentine’s project to  research  the meaning of Valentine’s Day and where it came from. The following are some of the interviews  from the learners about its history:

“My understanding of Valentine’s Day is that it’s not only about loving couples, it’s about sharing love with all the special people in our lives. February was chosen as the love month because this is the month Saint Valentino died on the 14th of February. Red and white are the colours that are associated with Valentines because blood was shed when he died. That is why we have the red. wWite is for peace as he was at peace about what he did. He married young couples even though he knew it was against the law and when he died he was finally at peace about everything. The heart symbol during this month of February symbolizes love. To me Valentines means the day where you show how much you love and appreciate people around you and also to show appreciation by wearing red and white.”

By Miliswa Zwelinjani

c.   Valentino’s Story

Research done by Sandy’s Class

Let me introduce myself, my name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn’t like Emperor Claudius and I wasn’t the only one. A lot of people shared my feeling. Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join; many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any marriages. Young people thought this new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn’t going to support that law.

Did I mention I was a priest? One of my favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after emperor Claudius passed his law. I kept on performing marriage ceremonies secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelight room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.

One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death. I tried to stay cheerful and also do you know what? Wonderful things happened, many people came to visit me in jail. They threw notes and flowers through the window. They wanted me to know that they too believe in love. One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirit up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, “Love it from your Valentine”.

I believe that note started a custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine’s day. It was written on the day I died 14 February.

d.     LETTER OF APPRECIATION by A.S Nogaga (Department of Education)

On behalf of the Department of Education Port Elizabeth District, I hereby wish to convey words of gratitude and appreciation for the good work that you are doing for our schools. You are providing an enabling environment for our young people in general and the disabled youth in particular to obtain skills and knowledge for their development. You are also exposing them to workplace situation as well as helping the schools to execute their administrative duties.

Your institution is contributing positively to the development of previously disadvantaged communities. The school communities appreciate the wonderful contribution that you are making.

We are looking forward to a long and lasting relationship with you.

 e.     BELLVILLE:

Academy Life in February has been a buzz with new happenings: In addition to being the month of love, we have welcomed many new learners as well as staff members. 20 new learners sponsored by I & J have joined the academy as well as learners from Entrade, Nalco, ARB and Quest. They are a high-spirited bunch and we look forward to an exciting year ahead.

We have also welcomed three young dynamic facilitators to our team in February; Ntombodidi, Nosandi and Tumi  have undertaken to bring fresh new ideas and enthusiasm to our Academy.

The staff and learners were caught up in the spirit of love and dressed for the occasion in their black, red and white. We had a competition for best dressed, valentine cupcakes on sale and we ralled a beautiful luxury hamper, which one of our Domestic Services Learners, Percival Borrins won.

Instead of just focusing on love and romance we urged learners to seriously consider the responsibilities the youth have that goes hand in hand with being inlove. Topics discussed included mutual respect, self-respect and safe sex.

A fun and educational day was enjoyed by all.

LETTER FROM ALI SMEETON

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To all of our clients and partners in Disability.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best for 2014!

Over the holiday season I have had time to reflect on how much I Can! has achieved over the past 3 years.

When we opened our first academy in January 2011 we did so with 30 learners and 5 volunteer staff members.  We have gone into 2014 with 9 academies, 103 full-time staff members and will be training more than 600 persons with disabilities. In 2014 we will be opening two new academies in Pietermaritzburg and East London.

None of this would be possible without each and every staff member’s unwavering commitment to the improvement of persons with disabilities.  Whilst our responsibilities can be very challenging at times the rewards are immeasurable.

Our focus for 2014 will be not only to continue to strive to achieve excellence in our academies, but to ensure that, our learners are not only trained but transitioned into meaningful employment on completion of the learnership.  To this end, we are launching community projects in each region where through our clients ED contributions to our sister company, Khulisani, we are able to place our learners with organisations that desperately need additional workers but cannot necessarily afford the labour.

I Can! Farm will also be launched in April 2014.  I Can! has recently purchased a 34 hectare farm in the Natal Midlands where we expect to be able to provide persons with disabilities agricultural skills.  The produce from the farm will be used to provide sustenance to the community.

I would like to thank all of our partners for their on-going support.  Together we can make a difference.

Should you wish to find out more about how you can provide employment for our learners, please contact me on 084 6040821.

I CAN! ROADSHOW 2014

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I Can! together with our partners Khulisani and PMI held the first Client Information sessions in last month in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg where our three biggest academies are situated. This was not only to provide our clients with an opportunity to visit our academies and meet our learners, but also to learn more about the new BBBEE codes.

Our guest speaker, John Botha, has spent the last 6 years at NEDLAC as a business representative. He is also a consultant in transformation, human capital development and labour law. Mr. Botha discussed the impact that the new BBBEE codes will have on companies that are not proactive, innovative and who do not adopt an integrated approach to BBBEE.

He predicted that the amended codes and the changes to the acts  may result in the average verification will become level 7. It may also result in a 15-20% staff cost increase and a 4-10% increase in referrals to conciliation and arbitration to name but a few.

Mr. Botha urged that all companies need to act now and will have to address the following administrative matters immediately:

  • Revisit entire BBBEE strategy.
  • Draft and maintain a risk statement.
  • Update fixed-term contracts,
  • Update TES Service Level Agreements.
  • Arrange an audit of TES.
  • Begin an investigation into equal treatment risk exposure and

strategic options to minimize risk & employee cost increases.

  • Review IR policies such as retrenchments, employment equity and  similar issues.
  • Establish impact on collective agreements.
  • Commission and audit into the entire employment equity compliance domain on the basis of the requirements of the DG review.
  • Draft new a-typical employment and equal treatment/pay for work of equal value policies.

Finally, he explained the priority elements on the new BBBEE scorecard and how companies can use Skills Development as an anchor to approach BBBEE. According to Mr. Botha, companies can target 85 points with a single integrated strategy and address a priority element. By utilizing I Can’s proposition, companies can be assured to gain maximum points on the required spend as well as impact the lives of people with disabilities.

See CNBC interview with John Botha discussing the impact of the new labour law and BBBEE amendments on local business.

http://www.zbconsulting.za.com/

DURBAN – MOVING INTO OUR OWN SPACE

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DURBAN – MOVING INTO OUR OWN SPACE

In December the I Can! Disability Academy in Musgrave moved from Silverton Road to Durban North. The new Academy is big enough to accommodate two more venues, which by next month will be full! A big thank you to PMI for all the desks and chairs for the venues.

The learners have responded well to the move and are all enjoying their new classrooms. They also have a comfortable recreational area outside where they can enjoy their tea and lunch breaks. The new space also has kitchen facilities and a practical room which enables the learners to prepare food and improve their cooking skills. We are proud to be able to give our learners  the opportunity to participate  and thank all our clients for their continued support. This year we want to assist as many of our learners that we can with finding suitable employment opportunities so they can enter the workforce upon completion of their studies.

A very big thank you to Adcorp for their generous sponsorship of a second vehicle to I Can! The Durban Academies are going to benefit greatly from the use of the Mercedes Vito for transport.

 STARTING 2014 WITH A BANG IN PE!

For the PE staff, 2013 ended with a beautiful summer’s day on the beach for our yearend function. The staff brought along their little ones to enjoy the day with the I Can! team. Needless to say when we returned to work in January, we were refreshed and ready to hit the road running.

To add to the optimism, January marks the month that we passed eight of our moderations with flying colours, and we will be bidding farewell to the very first group of I Can! learners in PE on 30 January.

This month we are looking forward to welcoming 20 new female learners on a Hygiene and Cleaning learnership, sponsored by Grindrod Limited. Grindrod’s business is moving cargo by rail, sea and air, as well as providing integrated logistical and specialised services en route. Although our learners are obviously not cargo, we are confident that with this sponsorship, Grinrod will also be moving the lives of these 20 females to new heights!

GRADUATIONS 2013 – GAUTENG

Learners from our Kempton Park and Jet Park academies attended their graduation ceremony on 30  November 2013.

Our keynote speaker was Nonhlanhla Mabusa (previously interviewed in our newsletter https://www.ican-sa.co.za/academy-news-2/). She gave a motivational talk on living with disability from a personal perspective.

Graduates were then entertained by current learners in the form of a short play about the challenges they face as young people living with disability. The play touched a lot of people in the audience and the actors earned a standing ovation.

Finally we were entertained by some of our deaf learners who signed the song used in a recent song competition.

Our take-home message:

  • I’m beautiful in my way
  • ‘Cause God makes no mistakes
  • I’m on the right track baby
  • I was born this way
  • Don’t hide yourself in regret
  • Just love yourself and you’re set
  • I’m on the right track baby
  • I was born this way

BELLVILLE

On the 24 January 2014 Cape town-Bellville Domestic Services learners celebrated their cultural diversity by dressing in traditional attire, thereby showcasing their personal heritage. All learners welcomed seeing the various styles and learning more about the different African cultures. The planning of a cultural feast and different attire was a project that these learners used to research for their formative assessment of the Life skills module.

LIGHTS! CAMERA AND…ACTION!

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Production of our marketing videos

One of I Can!’s most outstanding learner’s is Cynthia Khumalo, sponsored by Omnia and currently enrolled on the Domestic Services learnership at Kempton Park. This energetic 22-year old is always on top in her academic assignments and offers assistance to her peers at every opportunity.

Cynthia was diagnosed with an intellectual disability when she was in primary school. Besides diligently completing her studies at I Can! Cynthia has also been involved in the production of our marketing videos for I Can! She has been presenting, narrating and introducing our company in these videos that are used for clients and for presentations.

Typically she will be given a script the night before and memorize it and just do one take on set the following day during the shoot. Most of the videos Cynthia did can be seen on the Academy’s YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=m7h1S5ePRQA

 This young women wishes to become a full time presenter, chef or events coordinator.

KHULISANI BEADING PROJECT

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Update on the latest project.

Khulisani’s crafting projects have been so well received that the team was rewarded with another order from PMI for one of their marketing days.

Two  of I Can’s ex-learners with intellectual disabilities (Humaira Mahomed  and Partune Chamane) were employed for one week by Khulisani to complete this project  and managed to make and package 360 of these beautiful bracelets in record time.

Although the crafting side of Khulisani is not necessarily an on-going project, it still offers occasional work and opportunities for our ex-learners. As more companies are made aware of this service,  more ex-learners will be employed. And that is the vision and mission of Khulisani.

AMENDED BBBEE CODES

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Newly amended BBBEE Codes were published by the dti minister, Dr Rob Davies on 11 October 2013 and will be used to verify businesses whose financial year ends 10 October 2014. The codes will replace the existing BEE codes of Good Practice. Those businesses that are verified after October 2014 will be subject to the amended codes.

The amended codes are fairly similar to the existing codes, although some weightings and names of some elements have been changed.  There is a general improvement in the targets which should result in better transformation. More points on skills development can be earned than ever before showing the importance of skills development in the economy and we see this as a positive move.

Amended generic principles include:

  • A generic scorecard adjusted in accordance with government key priorities.
  • Five scorecard elements with employment equity and management control as well as  consolidation of preferential procurement and enterprise development.
  • Broad based groups elevated into the main ownership scorecard.
  • All companies except Exempted Micro Enterprises to comply with all elements.
  • Scorecard points and qualification criteria for awarding of B-BBEE status levels seriously adjusted.
  • Employment equity and management control merged into one element: Management Control (MC) weighted at 15 points collectively.
  • Preferential procurement and enterprise development merged into one element: Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) weighted at 40 points collectively
  • Importantly, skills development has been increased to 6% of payroll spend and the 0.3% of payroll spend for persons with disabilities has been retained but the weighting has been increased to four points from the previous three.
  • Introduced minimum requirements of priority elements: Ownership, skills development, and enterprise and supplier development, with the implication that if these are not achieved the overall verification level will dilute by one point.
  • The thresholds for exempted micro enterprises and qualifying small enterprises have been adjusted to R10m and R50m turnover per annum respectively.
  • Enhanced the recognition status of black owned EMEs and QSEs.

The amended BBBEE codes will probably result in the average verification level being a level 7 for those businesses who are not innovative or who do not adopt an integrated approach to BBBEE

I Can! will be hosting a ‘Client Info Sessions’ nationally in January and have invited John Botha to present on the amended B-BBEE codes.  John has spent the last six years at NEDLAC as a business representative and who is a consultant in transformation, human capital development and labour law.

For more on revised scorecards B-BBEE recognition, see full dti report:

http://www.thedti.gov.za/economic_empowerment/docs/bee_launch.pdf