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Through the popularity of our Alex Computer studio a second branch was opened in Soweto in January 2007 called The Computer Tutor.  The 2007/2008 year was spent establishing the branch. 

Through our donors we are able to support a variety of projects implemented at the Alexsan Resource Centre. 

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 chair the Gauteng Organisation of Community Arts and Culture Centres (GOMACC) and continue to promote and support the arts through current programmes such as the Lottery Arts Project and the National Community Art Centre Awards. 

The Computer Tutor – Soweto 

In January 2007 the Computer Tutor Soweto was launched.  Over this past period we have focused on running the eight-week computer training and business fundamentals course.   

The focus of this centre is similar to that of the Alex lead centre and that is to address some of the skills shortages of our youth who have left school and are looking for work. 

We started with 36 students for the first group – while 18 students were doing computer training the other 18 were receiving business fundamentals training.  Later in the year we were able to obtain additional computers and were able to accommodate intakes of up to 48 students.   

We were also able to commence with the Saturday classes but the evening classes have not been in demand.  The computer centre is based at the Nicro Centre in Soweto.   

Alexsan Resource Centre - Alexandra 

The role of the National Facilitator over this past year has continued to support the day to day management of the Alexsan Resource Centre.  The City of Johannesburg has supported the day to day operations of the centre management, security and cleaning staff together with that of the library personnel.   

The Educational Trust with the assistance of its donors manages the computer studios, co-funds the Life Line Centre, supports the library projects, funds the day to day costs of the Internet Café, provides supplementary bursaries for computer students, supports events such as carols by candlelight and library competitions.  These will be expanded on further in this report. 

Emmaus Community Centre - Duduza 

The operational funding from EED Germany came to a close over this period and a strong partnership has commenced with the Department of Social Services in Nigel who needed to bring their operations closer to the people of Duduza. In addition they are supporting the centre that is providing the community with a drop-in centre for AIDS orphans and children in need.  The centre provides meals twice a day, clothes washing facilities and care givers who visit the children’s homes.  The caregivers assist the children in the afternoons with their studies and have a selection of games for the little ones.  They also assist the children in getting registered to receive a government grant and in finding a support parent in the community. 

Currently the centre is working with 540 children as the current facilities are unable to accommodate more children.  Statistics obtained have shown that up to 800 children could be accommodated.  Management is currently working on finding ways to extend the facility.   

The centre also provides a cross section of other programmes such as food gardens, Little Champs and youth support.   

Gauteng Organisation of Community Arts and Culture Centres 

Over this past period the third phase of the Lottery funding was implemented and planning for the National Community Art Centre Awards took place.   

During this third and final phase of the Lottery Project in November/December 2007 we were able to provide arts trainers to a total of 15 venues in Tshwane, West Rand, Central, East Rand and Sedibeng. 

The project was very inclusive involving service providers, trainers, project managers and in some instances local bed and breakfast establishments to house the trainers while visiting outlying areas.  Together with the many participants reached there were a total of approximately 511 people involved in the project. 

For the first three weeks we focused on the unemployed youth and for the second three weeks we teamed up with the Provincial Department of Arts and Culture and included school going children during the December holiday period.  The disciplines of Dance, Drama and Storytelling were utilized throughout.  Moving into Dance provided the trainers for the Dance and Sibikwa provided trainers for the Drama and Storytelling. 

Service Providers with their respective trainers and relevant course material were identified.  Youth were identified to become project coordinators.  They were shown how to put a small local project together and were provided with application forms, attendance registers and evaluation forms for both students and trainers.  They fell under the supervision of one of our coordinators as they recruited and monitored the day to day activities of the project.  At the close of the project they all came together with their paperwork for a feedback and a debriefing session.  The Service Providers provided the day to day support for their arts trainers in the field. 

The Alexsan Kopano Educational Trust was carrying and managing the funds for this initial Lottery Funding while GOMACC was waiting to be able to comply with the Lottery conditions of having at least two years of audited financial statements.  The second phase of Lottery funding has been submitted in the name of GOMACC as the organisation now complies having four years of audited financial statements.   

The second application for funding will be focusing on training both arts administrators and arts facilitators from the five regions of Gauteng and will enable GOMACC to set up its own independent office, where from the Strategic Planning Workshop that took place in February 2008, the provincial need of a Resource Centre for the Community Art Centres/Projects in the Province was identified. 

Planning for the National Community Art Centre Awards took place in September 2007 with the Assessor visits starting in and will be reported on in the next reporting period. 

Acknowledgements 

We would like to thank EED Germany for supporting the National Facilitator, the National Lottery together with the Department of Arts and Culture for supporting the work of GOMACC, Toyota for their support of the library and computer project, Cummins for supporting the computer studio and also inviting students to visit their offices, Anglo American for supporting the Alexsan/Life Line project, Sasol for upgrading the library computers and Aristocrat Technologies for assisting in updating both the organisation’s administration and computer studio hardware maintenance needs, excursions and events for the kids and equipment to support the Saturday classes in the library.

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