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Alexsan Kopano Educational Trust
Chairpersons Report
For The Year Ended 31st March 2004
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NATIONAL FACILITATOR AND CENTRE DIRECTOR - HOLLY LUTON-NEL
From our experienced gained over the past 13 years we have been invited to sit on a number of national government task teams to share our knowledge and work on a larger scale towards the development of this country. Our roots have come from Alexandra but we hope that from our local knowledge we can further assist development at a provincial and national level.
National Multi-Purpose Centre Initiative
Over this past year we have continued to work with government on the National Multi-Purpose Centre Initiative. Over this period an additional 20 centres were launched bringing the number to 57, with a total target of 60 centres to be opened nationally in order to complete Phase One by July 2004. Today we are part of the National Executive Committee as well as the Education and Training and the Fundraising Task Teams. We will be feeding the UNESCO project (see below) into those centres that have the capacity to run it. We are particularly interested in the development of course material for the training of centre managers nationally.
Community Electronic Multi-media
At the Department of Communication's Community Electronic Multi-Media Indaba the National Facilitator was one of six nominated to be part of a policy task team to take the work of the conference forward. The task team was asked to look at a strategy for the development of a community multi-media sector in order to respond to the technological convergence challenges at grassroots level. The Task Team has now completed this report and reported back to the Community Indaba held in November 2003, capturing any additions to the report, before it was presented to the Minister. The Task Team came up with a comprehensive report that can be accessed on the Department's web page. One of the focal areas was to set up a Network of Networks where people in the communications sector can constructively work together in getting multi-media services to communities on the ground. The National Facilitator gave input on behalf of the multi-purpose centre sector.
Community Art Centres
The National Department of Arts and Culture has been challenged to revitilise the Community Art Centres. Much of the development will be happening at a provincial level with policy formulation and networking at a national level. It may be required in future that Community Art Centres could become part of a "multi-purpose" facility depending on where they are located. This is to maximize usage of buildings that we already have as a nation, bringing services closer to the people.
The Gauteng launch took place in June 2003 were the beginning of a data base was compiled. Gauteng was subdivided into five regions broadly based on existing municipal demarcations. Each region nominated a regional representative. The National Facilitator is chairperson for the Gauteng initiative.
Over this period the Gauteng organization was named GOMACC (Gauteng Organisation of Community Art and Culture Centres). A constitution was formed and the organization registered. Face to face research was carried out by the committee in the five regions of Gauteng to find out the true situation of community arts in the province. A research writer was employed to pull this report together for future use both at provincial and local level. Fund raising proposals went out and monies were received both from the Department of Arts and Culture and the Lottery.
The implementation of these funds will be actioned during the next reporting period on an entry level career guidance course for out of work youth and school going youth in Grades 10 and 11. The progress made was shared with other provinces at a workshop held in Bloemfontein and copies of our constitution and other materials circulated. In June 2004 the committee will be reporting back to its Gauteng constituency on developments achieved since the initial launch.
With province and other role players we will assist in the development of the arts both in Alex and other centres in Gauteng. Asking local government to match our development funding will also be one of our future lobbying activities. With very little happening on the ground we hope this initial programme will stimulate further programmes.
Alexsan and Emmaus Community Centre
Apart from the day to day management of the Alexsan Centre in the areas of strategy, funding, finance and project development, we were asked to assist in the development of the Emmaus Centre in Duduza. The Emmaus Community Centre shares a common donor who sponsored the building of both centres. EED Germany requested Alexsan to help its sister centre to get up and running. At the start substantial input was given to the centre and its organization. Today the input is more on a needs basis.
With expected additional funding from Germany we are planning to add a computer studio to the programmes of the Duduza centre in the next reporting period.
UNESCO Project for Southern Africa
Alexsan was selected by UNESCO to pilot a project for Southern Africa based on Developing Open Learning Communities for Gender Equality with the support of ICT's. Alexandra provided the base for the urban model and Mozambique provided the base for the rural model. Naledi3D provided the technical expertise in creating the virtual reality development format. By being able to see and hear content makes learning more interesting and increases learner comprehension rather than just reading text. In rural areas where some people are illiterate this format, using mainly pictures and sound, becomes an incentive to learning.
In the first phase of the project, in the last reporting period, research, focus groups and a workshop were held where the needs of the youth were identified. Five main themes arose, from which the issue of employment was the most pressing. From this workshop we decided to include the two themes of employment, the one on finding work in the formal sector and the other the informal sector.
In this second phase course content and the development of courseware was achieved and the content tested with 20 youth in Alex for feedback. Portuguese sub-titles were added to the film previously made, to be used as a learning tool for development practitioners in other countries. The film showed the steps we followed in compiling a project of this nature. We put together a South African process analysis which fed back to UNESCO Paris, who created a reference book and internet reference on the total Southern African project. We started researching through the GCIS (Government Communication Information Systems), centres that would be able to carry this material. Work also commenced on a handbook that would accompany the virtual reality CD to assist facilitators in the implementation of this project in their respective provinces. In phase three we will action the launch and the implementation training.
At the launch we will be inviting other government departments such as Health, Agriculture etc. to encourage further development of content to further this initial seed funding provided by UNESCO. This material will be accessed through the various multi-purpose centres of the GCIS led initiative and the telecentres of the Department of Communication.
We would like to thank the City of Johannesburg, EED Germany and UNECO for enabling us to do this important work.
Overview
National Facilitator And Centre Director - Holly Luton-Nel
Centre Usage And Activities - Ben Mhlongo
Alexsan Community Library - Sonny Mothopeng
Computer Training - Olgah Phenya
Alexsan Youth Desk - Prince Mafora
Alexsan/Life Line Counselling Centre - Iris Maliboho
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