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• The computer studios continued to serve the community with computer and business fundamentals classes. They are accredited with the MICTSETA. The studios have been handed over to the long term trainers to manage as their own operation with the Trust providing a supporting role when needed.
• The Emmaus Orphan and Vulnerable Children and HIV/AIDS children’s facility on the East Rand is operating and assisting over 700 children. During the previous period they added an ECD facility to their programmes. Their facility has the capacity to eventually cater for 900 to 1000 children. The Department of Social Development continues to support the day to day running operational costs where 58 staff members are involved with the children. Over this period operations were adjusted to comply with the Covid Protocols.
• We manage the project planning and finances of the Gauteng Organisation of Community Arts and Culture Centres (GOMACC). Over this past period we continued to work with the Department of Arts and Culture to implement on-site training throughout the Province with 30 of our facilitators. There are 6 facilitators in each of the 5 regions of the Province. This year we held open-air workshop festivals due to Covid restrictions in each region but worked within the Covid protocols at the time. The event at the Soweto Theatre was subsequently cancelled and we then reinvested in our facilitators on the ground. Municipalities assisted us when needed with venue space. The Newtown office also mentors other arts groupings.
   

Alexsan Kopano Educational Trust

The Educational Trust, with the ongoing support from Toyota, offers mentoring support to The Computer Tutor computer studios in Alexandra. Being accredited with the MICTSETA the staff have additional administration work in handling the copious amounts of additional paperwork. They handle both the assessor and moderation functions in house. We keep the upgrading of our computers up to date which enables us to keep the standard of training high. Working within the township environment puts a strain on some of the student’s finances and that is why it is important that our fees remain low assisted with bursary bridging funding received from Toyota South Africa for those who are unable to contribute. This greatly assists in retaining the affordability of our programme. Toyota South Africa’s continued involvement in this project enables many youth to attend these courses and find employment. It is also a good in-between course for students prior to their tertiary studies.

The computer studios over the past two years have been operating under their own Computer Tutor NPO number and have taken over their annual reporting with the Department of Social Development. The studios are run by the long-term staff some whom have been with the project for the past 13 years. The Trust still plays a mentorship role and assists them in their progress when needed.

Due to the COVID restrictions the numbers of students we were able to reach this year was reduced to 209 of which 104 were full time students, 16 Saturday class students 29 evening class and 60 advanced class students.

Emmaus Community Centre - Duduza

For many years we have had oversight responsibility of this project on request and invitation from EED Germany. The Department of Social Services are now in their fifteenth year of tenancy at one of the centre’s buildings and a strong working relationship has continued with our management team. Their Nigel branch works from the site bringing them closer to the people of Duduza and surrounding areas and this also avoids previous travel costs that were incurred by those seeking their services. They have found this move most beneficial in bringing services to the community.

The Department supports the centre through the OVC and HIV/AIDS drop-in centre programme for orphans and children in need. Prior to Covid the centre provided meals twice a day that has now been replaced by food parcels in order to maintain protocol distancing amongst the children and staff. We are awaiting instruction to revert to the previous meal service. We still assist with clothes washing facilities and care givers also visit the children’s homes. Where the caregivers assisted the children in the afternoons collectively on site with their studies, library work, programmes and games, for the moment inputs are handled in a smaller homes based environment. They continue to assist children in getting registered, to receive government grants and to find a support parent in the community.

The centre continues to provide other activities such as their food gardens and indigenous games in the home environment together with youth support. They also provide Family Preservation services and Covid Awareness programmes.

Gauteng Organisation of Community Arts and Culture Centres

Development work during this Covid period included:

• With the Department of Arts and Culture we had 30 facilitators in the field throughout the 5 Regions of the Province
• We adapted and held regional open-air workshop festivals
• With City of Johannesburg we ran skills capacity training for start-ups and smaller NGO’s plus special school workshop festivals
• Mentored other arts groups
• Engaged local government to support the White Paper and our local arts groups

With the Department of Arts and Culture over this period we continued to support arts practitioners in the field working with communities on the ground and linking them with some municipality venues. With the cost of running individual art centres this approach ensured that arts programming still took place within the Province. With the funding received from the Department we were able to support 6 practitioners in each of the five regions of Gauteng.

Due to Covid we now needed to utilize open-air spaces or larger spaces that housed less participants. The regional workshop festivals continued to be professionally adjudicated and give the necessary feedback to participants on how to further improve the standard of their presentations. Categories covered the performing arts, poetry, dance, music and visual arts. The planned finale at the Soweto Theatre was cancelled due to Covid protocols and instead the funding was utilized giving the various practitioners more time in the field.

With COJ funding we were able to include young people with disabilities by working at the special schools and running skills capacity training for start-ups and smaller NGO’s.

We mentored other arts groupings in implementing their projects and also engaged the interest of local government in supporting their work with certain municipalities being more engaging than others. Several continued to come forward to assist with venues for the regional presentations and start to work towards the White Paper recommendations.

OUR OVERALL THANKS

We would like to sincerely thank:

• Toyota for supporting the computer studios
• Department of Social Development for supporting the Emmaus OVC and HIV/AIDS programme.
• The Department of Arts and Culture and City of Johannesburg for funding the work of GOMACC and other Provincial programmes during this financial year.  

In addition we would like to thank the staff, volunteers, trustees, community and all those who contributed to the organization over this reporting period. Thank you again for being a part of our family and for the role you have played.

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