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ALEXSAN KOPANO EDUCATIONAL TRUST
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2010

Projects for the March 2010 Financial Year

The Computer Tutor ?Soweto

During this past period we continued to run the eight-week computer training and business fundamentals course and Saturday classes. The evening classes are still not in demand in Soweto due to families wanting to be at home before it gets dark.

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.

The computer centre is based at the Nicro Centre in Soweto.

Due to the profile of Soweto and the spaced out residential nature of the area we continue to advertise at the beginning of each course in order to attract candidates. We hope that the word of mouth that sustains Alex will also apply to Soweto in the future.


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 salaries of the centre management, security and cleaning staff together with that of the library personnel. The day to day running costs have come from permanent and casual rentals, once-off bookings and photocopying. This amount covers the day to day costs whereas further fundraising will need to be done to manage the upgrading of the centre.

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 Caf? 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 Department of Social Services is in their third year of tenancy at the centre and a strong working relationship has continued with our management team. Their Nigel branch needed to bring their operations closer to the people of Duduza and have found this move most beneficial.

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 assist children to get registered to receive a government grant and to find a support parent in the community.

Currently the centre is working with 300 children as the current facilities are unable to accommodate more children. Statistics obtained have shown that up to 800 children need to be accommodated. EED Germany is committed to provide over 50% of the funding needed to build a larger extension. They have requested that the balance come from local donors. The Department of Social Services will support the day to day operational costs. This work will continue into the next financial year. We have until November 2011 to find the funding and complete the structure.

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


Gauteng Organisation of Community Arts and Culture Centres

This was a year of implementation. From Lottery funds received in October 2008 the recruitment process for the project was finalized. Arts Facilitation Training commenced at the end of February 2009, the Arts Practitioners moved into the field in the 3rd week of March and the Administration course started in the first week of April 2009.

During the latter part of the previous period funds were received from the GACC, which were actioned during this current reporting period. The focus was to assist those in the rural areas of Gauteng apply for funds and receive training in basic accounts for recording purposes.

During the year we continued to engage with the National Department of Arts and Culture to discuss a way forward for Community Art Centres and the resuscitation of the National Federation of Community Art Centres. Forums were held with our constituency to discuss the current policy document and our engagement with government. A summarised document was produced on the proposed policy for the Arts and culture sector for circulation.

In November 2009 we were approached by the NYDA/Flemish Batcha-Jeugd Project on recommendation from the Department of Arts and Culture to manage the finances for the Ipelegeng Arts and Sports Youth Project.

More detail on these activities can be obtained from GOMACC (Gauteng Organisation of Community Arts and Culture Centres.



Acknowledgements

We would like to thank:

• EED Germany for supporting the National Facilitator position
• Toyota for their ongoing support of the computer project and library
• Cummins for supporting the computer studio and also inviting students to visit their offices
• Anglo American for supporting the Alexsan/Life Line project
• Aristocrat Technologies for supporting assets and events at the centre such as the annual Christmas Carols for the children, computer virus protection, replacing old screens and chairs, metal tables for the centre and assisting with the marketing of the Soweto computer studio.
• National Lottery and GACC for supporting the work of GOMACC
  

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