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Through the popularity of our Alex Computer studio another branch was opened in Soweto during January this year called The Computer Tutor.

We continue to work on the development of the Emmaus Community Centre in Duduza. This centre is focusing on the support of HIV/AIDS child headed families and is working closely with the Department of Social Services.

We continue to run projects at the Alexsan Resource Centre.

From our experienced gained managing developmental projects over the past 16 years we continue to support the national GCIS office in their development of the multi-purpose centres – now called Thusong centres.

In addition we managed the Gauteng arm of the national Department of Arts and Culture Mosadi Wa Konokono campaign through GOMACC and continue to promote the setting up of provincial task teams to support the promotion of arts on the ground.

The Computer Tutor – Soweto

In January 2007 the Computer Tutor Soweto was launched. Since its inception we have managed to start with 36 students per course and hope to increase this number to 48 during the course of the year. The Saturday classes have also started. We are based at the Nicro Centre in Soweto. Next year the studio will report on its own activities.


Emmaus Community Centre - Duduza

The kind funding from EED Germany over the years is shortly going to cease. Over this past period we have been actively looking for partners to assist in keeping the centre alive and running. Our call has been answered by the Department of Social Services who will to bring their operations closer to the people and will be moving into the centre during the course of this coming year. Opportunities may also be available to develop the land around the centre for more support services to serve both the community of Duduza and surrounding communities. The National Facilitator has been involved mainly in overall strategy, funding and project development.


Alexsan Resource Centre - Alexandra

The role of the National Facilitator over this past year has been to support the day to day management of the Alexsan Centre as the City of Johannesburg has gradually become more hands on. We still manage the computer studios, co-fund the Life Line Centre, fund the day to day costs of the Internet Café and some projects in the Library, contribute to the salary of one of the library staff, provide supplementary bursaries for computer students, support ad-hoc events such as carols by candlelight and library competitions. In December 2006 we hosted the organisation’s 20th Anniversary and located many of the original co-founders and members of the community to come and relive our early years.


National Multi-Purpose Centre Initiative

Over this past year a conference was held to announce the change of name from the multi-purpose centres to the Thusong Centres. Restructuring took place within the department to better gear up for the Phase Two role out which will need active local government participation. From here the National Intersectoral Steering Committee work will continue and is scheduled to start again later in the 2007 year.


Community Art Centres

The work of the National Facilitator took place through GOMACC (Gauteng Organisation of Community Art and Culture Centres), launched in June 2003. 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.

During the course of the 2004-2005-2006 year we implemented five arts disciplines being Drama, Dance, Visual Arts, Storytelling and Music to 12 centres in 4 regions throughout our Province. These were Tshwane, West Rand, Central and Ekurhuleni. The Vaal unfortunately was not able to be included due to lack of management capacity.
This programme was rolled out on two occasions.

The third phase of the Lottery funding was earmarked to train local trainers in the disciplines mentioned above and in the five regions above. With the support of local government we had hoped that after the training they would take up the responsibility of funding the local stipends for each trainer, thereby extending the project indefinitely. They were able to provide facilities but unfortunately were unable to find the funds for stipends. We had hoped that by piloting a project of this nature and running it twice we were able to prove that it was effective and popular amongst our youth. We are now reverting to managing one more rollout to complete the funding most kindly provided by the Lottery. This will take place during the 2007-2008 financial year.

We had hoped this funding would have triggered greater opportunities; however those who participated really valued the input given. This was reflected in the video that recorded the impact of the programme on the youth it reached. A later follow up in some areas also showed that a number of students had been able to utilize some of the skills learnt which had assisted them in being able to find work.

During the course of this past year we managed the Mosadi Wa Konokono Awards for the National Department of Arts and Culture. (Photos can be seen in our photo gallery on our web page). The finals for the event in Gauteng was held at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg and attended by the Deputy Minister. We were later delighted to learn that Gauteng Province to date had hosted the best event nationally.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank EED Germany for supporting the National Facilitator, Department of Arts and Culture together with the Lottery for supporting the work of GOMACC, Toyota for their support of the library and computer project, Cummins for supporting the computer studio and Anglo American for supporting the Alexsan/Life Line project.

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