SCHOOL CLUB PROGRAMME 2018 HIGHLIGHTS AU SCHOOL OBJECTIVES To give learners a platform to learn new skills CLUB and share their own experiences with peers; Create a platform for socio-emotional learning PROGRAMME in all its forms To create an atmosphere of trust and offer a Goal safe place for dialogue on sensitive issues To empower learners to advocate for a sustainable learning affecting learners; environment conducive to quality education and become To change the behaviors of learners such as apathy active stakeholders in their community. and lack of responsibility to their school and communities Mission To create critical thinkers who observe their To nurture leadership qualities and create non-apathetic communities and schools through a social and fully capacitate learners who are responsible and activist perspective; accountable to their community through promoting social To inculcate a culture of learning and emotional learning, voluntarism and confidence, making appreciation of schools as safe learning them believe that they can make a difference in their lives centers as well as in their schools and communities. PICTURE TAKEN AT THE INTER HIGH SCHOOL DEMOCRACY QUIZ P A G E 1 PICTURE TAKEN AT THE INTER HIGH SCHOOL DEMOCRACY QUIZ B A C K G R O U N D In 2014, in response to a noticeable lack of youth leadership and community involvement, Africa Unite initiated the School Club Programme with the slogan ‘My School is My Community’. As many township and underprivileged communities face onslaughts of youth vandalism, gangsterism, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS; Africa Unite launched the School Club Program as a paradigm shift, to drive change toward a safer school environment in which learners themselves are the center of this positive change. The School Club Programme aims to empower learners to build their own leadership capacities and to act as peer leaders Masibambane High SCHOOL CLUB to engage with their schools and communities in an PRESENTING DRAFT SOLUTIONS TO WATER CRISIS 'WHOSE DAY ZERO' CAMPAIGN effort to pave the way for a safer and more inclusive South Africa. SCHOOL CLUBS THAT ARE The Africa Unite School Club (AUSC) program is CURRENTLY IN OPERATION designed to work in the townships and underprivileged schools to create young leaders, who think critically W E S T E R N C A P E about their environment, take pride in their school, and Masibambane Secondary School(Kraaifontein) take responsibility in their community development. Heideveld High School (Heideveld) Nelson Mandela High School (Nyanga) The AUSC's are designed as a replication of Rosendaal High School (Delft) government and thus prompt students to see their Portlands High School (Mitchell's Plain) schools as a country that they must lead as the Ashton Public Combined School (Ashton) governing board. G U A T E N G Fons Luminsi Secondary School (Soweto) The AUSC also exposes learners to environments that Newgate College, (Hillbrow) are different from their own to address the historical spatial inequalities and allow the learners to think critically about their environment in relation to the communities around them. T HE MODEL OF AFRICA UNITE SCHOOL CLUBS The School Club model has been initiated and sustained by Africa Unite in partnership with school administration. Each School Club is led by an elected cabinet, comprised of a President and their 6 Ministers – Minister of Environment and Health, Minister of Finance, Minister of Social Development, Minister of Information and Public Relations, Minister of Education and Minister of Sports, Culture and Entertainment. This cabinet is then assisted by several Parliamentarians who are involved in the clubs as assistants and help to hold the cabinet accountable. South African parliament which the school club model mirrors. Picture taken from biznews.com Majority of the Africa Unite School Club presidents are women Provincial Minister of Social Development with the AU School Club social development minister during his community outreach Gauteng School Club, Soweto 2 018 COMBINED ACTIVITIES Election of the new cabinet leaders Leadership camp Capacity building for the cabinet Understanding your portfolio duties Economic literacy Parliament tour CV writing workshop Shadowing Provincial Ministers Africa Unite & IEC Inter-high School Quiz Whose Day Zero Campaign Heritage Month Educational Tour SHAWCO Community Health Liaison training “Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world usually do.” ― Steve Jobs Ikhaya Loxolo Old Age home: School Club learners visiting the elders on Mandela Day Commemoration month School Club leaders from six schools attending the SHAWCO community Liaison Health training in the University of Cape Town Campus AU SCHOOL CLUB ACTIVITIES Undertaken in 2018 ELECTION OF A NEW CABINET All schools had the opportunity to elect their new cabinet leaders. Each cabinet is comprised of 6 leaders (president, minister of environment and health, minister of finance, minister of social development, minister of education, minister of information and public relations and minister of sports, culture and entertainment. The 7 are also assisted by 30 parliamentarians who are also President of Africa Unite School Club in Nelson Mandela High School responsible for holding them accountable. Addressing school club members Leadership Camp After conducting free and fair elections in all the 6 school clubs in the Western Cape, a 3-day Outcomes leadership camp was held in Houtbay with 42 learners (7 cabinet leaders of each school). The After the camp, the learners were thankful to purpose of this camp was to empower the cabinet Africa Unite for such an opportunity which members who are already playing a vital role in they never had in their lives. Majority of them their respective schools and communities so that expressed that this was a unique and they become efficient in the running of their educative experience which they will never clubs, mobilise more learners at school level and forget in their lives. They also expressed that their respective communities. As future leaders, they understood how crucial their role and the learners were also taught how to be a good leader, take decisions, how to conduct meetings, responsibilities in bringing positive change in keep records of their meetings and develop their their respective schools. They developed their own plan of action. In Johannesburg, the 2 quarterly plan of action which they would participating schools had their leadership camp implement in their respective schools. in Kensington. The learners managed to administer the water In the Western Cape, during the camp the surveys in their own schools where they learners had an opportunity to learn how they could conduct a baseline research on the interviewed more than 600 learners in all the inequalities attached to the Cape Town water schools. To get a good and one of the most crisis. They developed their own survey which they important outcomes of this research was the were going to administer in their own respective failure for most learners to understand that schools. The purpose of this survey was to make they faced a water crisis mainly because it the learners aware that the water crisis has been was now normal for water to be closed during in the townships for many years and show how it some days. has affected township learners for many decades. During the Inter-High School quiz CAPACITY BUILDING FOR THE CABINET After the leadership camp the cabinet leaders are often invited to attend various training's in order to enhance their skills and knowledge. Below are some of the training in which they attended: Understanding your portfolio duties A workshop was held with all the 5 presidents and ministers of each portfolio as follows: president, minister of environment and health, minister of finance, minister of social development, minister of information and public relations and minister of sports, culture and entertainment. The aim of the workshop is for them to understand their portfolios and how they can develop activities in relation to their portfolios. Promote education for sustainable development specifically goal 4:7 Economic literacy In order for the learners to understand and CV writing workshop unpack and understand the political economic After finishing school, a large number of context of South Africa within and how it matriculants struggle to market themselves affects them at community and global levels. through a CV when seeking employment which is The workshop was conducted by the Alternative an essential skill. On the 8th of August, 30 Africa Information Development Center (AIDC) Unite School Club learners and alumni attended a Parliament tour: On the 22nd of April, workshop on how to create a professional CV. members of the Africa Unite School Clubs The workshop covered important aspects of CV attended a workshop at the Western Cape and cover letter writing such as content and Provincial Parliament in Cape Town. They learnt presentation. about the South African Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the role of the legislature and how Shadowing Provincial Ministers they can make their own submissions and During the June school holidays some of our petitions. The learners had the privilege of cabinet ministers had the opportunity to shadow visiting the chambers where they learned about the Official Western Cape Ministers during their day’s work. The selected learner minister the positions of parliamentary bodies. Each shadowed the Western Cape Minister of Social school proposed a submission in relation to the Development, Minister of Safety and Security and challenges they face in their schools. the Minister of Economic opportunities. One of the main outcomes of this shadowing was the interest drawn by the Minister of Economic opportunities in our school club programme. He was impressed with our water and sanitation project in which the learners designed their own action in addressing the water and sanitation crisis. The minister was invited by Rosendaal High School to be a guest speaker on Mandela Day where he donated 30 water and sanitation t- shirts to the school club.