db1 06.pmd - University of KwaZulu

DEVELOPMENT
brief
Volume 3 Number 1 • April 2006
isixaxambiji
School of Psychology
Taking youth forward
A
N innovative programme run by
the School of Psychology on the
Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is
breaking new ground for youth
from two secondary schools in the
province. Fast Forward, as it is
known, takes place annually during the mid-year school vacation
and brings together high school
learners from urban and rural contexts to explore aspects of their
identities and develop their sense
of personal potential and agency.
Participants are 100 Grade 11
learners from Chesterville Extension High in a township very close
to the Howard College campus, and
from Amangwane High School in the
rural area of Bergville.
Fast Forward was initiated by
Professor Jill Bradbury in 2003 in
response to a request from
Chesterville Extension High School
for exposure of its learners to the
world of academia and the opportunities it provides. Feedback from
all participants was overwhelmingly positive and Professor
Bradbury and her postgraduate students have since run the programme again in 2004 and 2005,
including learners from the rural
school of Amangwane in the
Bergville district of KwaZulu-Natal
in these two subsequent years.
The Fast Forward programme focuses explicitly on ways of re-thinking identity and social roles, particularly in relation to race and gender. Learners are
allocated to small groups facilitated by postgraduate Psychology students who
lead all group activities, participate alongside the learners, and build relationships with them. Graduates of UKZN spend a day chatting with learners in
small groups, providing them with real-life role models of how to overcome
barriers to success. The focus is on encouraging young people to think ‘outside
the box’ about unusual, innovative work opportunities and to recognise that
most people’s stories of work entail unexpected twists and turns.
Continued on page 4
HEAD TO HEAD: Fast Forward brings together learners from urban and rural
contexts to explore aspects of their identities and personal potential.
Highly Effective Art Programme (HEART)
Izwi lethu — ikusasa lethu
— Our voices, our future
D
ESPITE being a powerful and accessible force, the cultural arts generally
plays second fiddle to the overwhelming demands of the care and treatment of people living with and affected by HIV/Aids. A generous grant from the
National Development Agency (NDA) will offer the University’s Highly
Effective Art (HEART) programme an opportunity to demonstrate the important contribution that the cultural arts can make in the HIV/Aids arena. Located within the Centre for HIV/Aids Networking (HIVAN), the HEART team has
several years’ experience of mobilising arts and culture organisations to develop and deliver innovative training and intervention programmes which contribute to social and economic upliftment. For its work on the NDA project,
HEART will be partnering DramAidE, an established and highly experienced
cultural arts organisation based at the University of Zululand. The NDA award
represents a significant investment by national government in the vision of
these two creative organisations.
will be on the development of sustainable income-generating projects
driven by the learners and their communities. In addition, through participatory cultural arts workshops,
participants will be trained in research methods and participatory
techniques aimed at preserving the
community’s cultural heritage, history, environment, culture and visual
arts. Participants will then record,
document and archive the Uthungulu
district as a cultural heritage site in
Zululand.
The programme, called Izwi lethu — ikusasa lethu: Our voices, our future, is a
cultural tourism initiative that will be located in the Uthungulu district of
KwaZulu-Natal. Its core objective is to develop a participatory cultural arts training and income generation programme for learners from schools in KwaDlangezwa,
Uthungulu. Although KwaDlangezwa has a rich and varied cultural heritage and
significant local talent, the ability to harness it into marketable and sustainable
income-generating products is lacking. Research has shown that young people find
it particularly difficult to secure employment because, even with matriculation
certificates or University degrees, they lack the experience required by employers. This programme will strive to empower young people to live within their
environment and make the most of the opportunities it provides. The emphasis
Once their research is complete,
participants will be assisted to develop sustainable income-generating projects at a district level. This
will involve significant guidance and
mentoring.
A
cooperative will be formed with various community representatives to
assist and monitor the progress of
the young entrepreneurs. Relationships with existing tourism operations will be nurtured, with the
project offering innovative and
truly authentic alternatives to what
has often become a somewhat
jaded cultural experience for visitors to the area. The project runs
for a two-year cycle commencing in
April 2006.
Bren Brophy and Eliza Moodley
MAKING CULTURE COUNT: (l-r) Eliza Moodley and Bren Brophy of HIVAN,
and Lynn Dalrymple of DramAidE.
2
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Izwi lethu — Ikusasa lethu is a
partnership between HIVAN’s
Highly Effective Art (HEART)
programme and DramAide. It
focuses on use of the local
environment to develop
sustainable income-generating
projects among young people.
Contact Bren Brophy by email at
[email protected]
Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies
The pitch of hope
L
OCAL and traditional authorities
at KwaHlabisa-Mpukunyoni in
northern KwaZulu-Natal have a
dream — facilities and infrastructure that are accessible to the local community. Working with the
Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies — a joint initiative
of the University of KwaZulu-Natal
(UKZN) and the South African Medical Research Council — they also
hope to create awareness around
HIV/Aids, particularly among young
people.
Sport and health are a winning
combination. Enter Project
Siyathemba (‘we hope’), a football
pitch with spectator seating and a
clubhouse. The Mpukunyoni Traditional Authority, led by Inkosi M
Mkhwanazi, donated the land, the
Hlabisa municipality confirmed the
sustainability of the project and
the Africa Centre acted as
facilitator.
Last year, a competition challenged designers to create the perfect pitch. More than 300 entries
were received from around the
world. The finalists’ schemes were
displayed in schools and healthcare
centres. An international jury and
youth representatives selected the
design of Mr Swee Hong Ng, a Singapore native and an emerging architect now practising in
Pittsburgh, USA.
In September 2005 the
Siyathemba project was selected
Siyathemba brings together
the positive aspects of sport
with a health outreach
programme. It is a partnership
between the Mpukunyoni
Traditional Authority, the
Hlabisa Municipality and the
Africa Centre.
Contact Mbongiseni Buthelezi by email
at [email protected]
PITCHING IN: Participants survey the site of the new soccer facilities.
from among 118 finalists and hundreds of nominees for a prestigious INDEX
Design Award. The award was presented by the Crown Prince of Denmark at a
ceremony in Copenhagen. The INDEX awards acknowledge innovative designs
as important factors in developing solutions that improve the quality of life of
large numbers of people. The awards recognise achievements in five categories: body, home, work, play, and community. The winner of each category
receives ¤100,000 (R775,000). The Siyathemba project shared the prize for
the ‘Community’ category with Architecture for Humanity.
The pitch is to be built with funding from Architecture for Humanity in
collaboration with the American Society of Interior Design, Herman Miller, Interior Design magazine and the Red Rubber Ball Foundation. Architect Steve
Kinsler of East Coast Architects, who also helped design the Africa Centre, will
be overseeing its design and construction.
Volunteers from the nearby Africa Centre and the local health department
will be invited to use the space to combine Aids awareness programmes with
sports activities. The pitch will also be home to the first girls’ football league
in the area.
Siyathemba offers a unique opportunity to bring together the positive aspects of sport with an innovative health outreach programme in a setting designed with and for young people. Football, already the nation’s most popular
sport, will gain in popularity and interest when the World Cup comes to South
Africa in 2010. By emphasising a team approach, it is hoped that Siyathemba
will be a field of hope, a place where the area’s health care professionals and
its future leaders can come together.
Mduduzi Mahlinza
Originally published in ukzndaba, Vol 2 No 10/11, Oct/Nov 2005.
3
University of KwaZulu-Natal
School of Law
Street Law —
Taking legal education
to the community
S
Taking
youth
forward
Continued from front page
TREET LAW is a programme that is designed to teach secondary school learners, prisoners and civil society in general about law, human rights and democracy. The teaching is mainly done by senior law students. Since 1987 the
students have been trained to use outcomes-based teaching techniques, including small group discussions debates, case studies, drama, role plays, mock
trials, games and critical thinking exercises. School educators and community
leaders are also taught how to deliver the programme.
The programme was initiated in the United States in 1972 at Georgetown
University Law Centre. The first international Street Law programme was introduced in South Africa by Professor David McQuoid-Mason of the University of
KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in 1985.
In 1987 the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) was established on the
Howard College campus of UKZN to accommodate Street Law and a labour law
project. The Street Law project was initially funded by the Association of Law
Societies and proved to be a great success. It was soon expanded to 15 other
universities in South Africa, and subsequently attracted substantial funding
from USAID and other donors.
Law students continue to be involved in the programme throughout South
Africa, and at the Howard College campus 92 students were involved in the
2005 credit-bearing Street Law LLB course, where they use the CSLS resource
centre when preparing their lessons. The programme provides them with valuable in-service training to develop the skills they will need as future lawyers.
In 1997 Professor McQuoid-Mason was requested by Street Law Incorporated
in the USA to use his South African experience, and the work of the CSLS, to
help develop programmes in Eastern and Central Europe, Central Asia and the
former Soviet Union. Street Law programmes have also been developed in Kenya,
Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana — most of them based on the South African model
that emerged at UKZN.
More recently, the CSLS and Street Law have been focusing on education
and training on HIV/Aids, human rights and the law. In 2005 they also took over
the Independent Medico-Legal Unit’s training programme on Crimes Against
Women and Children. Under the auspices of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of
Health, this programme trains police officers, prosecutors, district medical
officers, lawyers, nurses and NGOs, to work as teams to ensure that women
and children survivors of crimes get their day in court and that the people who
have abused them are properly convicted and sentenced.
Originally published in ukzndaba Vol 3 No 1, January 2006.
The South African model of Street Law was pioneered at UKZN and has
since been adopted by many other universities in the country. Street
Law and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies are associated with the School
of Law on the Howard College campus.
Contact David McQuoid-Mason by email at [email protected]
Participants engage in a wide
range of activities: dance, music
and sporting workshops, activities
for exploring the natural environment, and exercises aimed at
building team relationships. These
activities, together with more
overtly narrative or textual
events (film and the stories of the
lives and work of others), challenge learners to think beyond the
confines of their limited worlds
and to envisage a new range of
possible paths their lives could
follow. During the course of the
programme learners also create
their own stories through photographing the process, interviewing people they meet and writing
about their experiences. These
stories are collated and made
available to other learners in the
schools’ libraries and, excitingly
in 2005, on a website that learners have used to interact with
counterparts from Nottingham in
the UK.
“Not only does it expose urban youth to rural ways of life,
and rural youth to the urban
socio-cultural milieu,” says Professor Bradbury, “but Fast Forward also challenges participants
to think beyond the confines of
their limited worlds and to envision a range of possible paths
their lives could follow. In addition, it serves as a critical training ground for graduate students
in Psychology, linking the world
of academic learning directly
with the world of practice.”
A project of the School of
Psychology on the Howard
College campus, Fast Forward
encourages urban and rural
learners to explore and
develop their sense of identity
and personal potential.
Contact Jill Bradbury by email at
[email protected]
4
University of KwaZulu-Natal
UKZN Foundation
Italian intern at UKZN Foundation
T
HE University of KwaZulu-Natal
(UKZN) Foundation increased its
international reach in 2005 by
partnering with the Masters in International Studies and Social Entrepreneurship Programme (MISP)
at the University of Bologna, Italy.
MISP is the first multidisciplinary
Masters programme in Europe dedicated to the study of philanthropy,
non-profit organisations, and social
entrepreneurship.
MISP provides postgraduate
training in a field which is presently
under-represented in the framework of the European higher education system, but which is
comparatively well-established in
universities in the United States.
The programme is significant considering the growing role that foundations, corporate philanthropy
and NGOs are performing in the
European context, with an increasing demand for professional training and specific management skills.
MISP’s aim is to enhance European
competitiveness in higher education by providing students from Europe and developing countries with
a distinctive programme that integrates the specific knowledge and
professional skills already developed in other programmes — particularly in the United States —
within a broad international and
comparative framework. Successful graduates are equipped with
skills to contribute to the work of
a range of target institutions, such
as NGOs, companies, and community-based and corporate foundations.
In 2005 the Executive Director
of the UKZN Foundation, Bruno van
Dyk, was invited to present a Master Class to MISP students in Bologna, and to contribute a chapter
to a book entitled University Foun-
LEARNING ON SITE: Italian student, Eliana Aiassa, during her internship.
dations: Historical Roots and Institutional Configurations (Baskerville and University of Bologna Press, 2005). In addition, the UKZN Foundation agreed to
host a student intern from MISP for three months as part of her service learning
experience. The student, Ms Eliana Aiassa, made an extremely useful contribution to the activities of the UKZN Foundation, and emerged as the top MISP
student for 2005.
This part of the programme involves periods of internship by students in a
range of non-profit organisations, such as the European Foundation Centre in
Brussels, the Tercentenary Foundation of the Bank of Sweden in Stockholm,
the Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und G. Bucerius in Hamburg, the Bertlesmann Stiftung
in Guetrsloh, the Maecenata Institut fur Philanthropie und Zivilgesellschaft in
Berlin, the Indianapolis Community Foundation, the Lilly Company Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the New World
Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Institute for the Development of
Social Investment, and the Irmandade do Divino Espírito Santo. The UKZN Foundation is privileged to have been placed in such prestigious company.
Plans are currently being devised to extend the partnership between UKZN
and the University of Bologna by enabling two Masters students from UKZN’s
Centre for Civil Society to attend MISP in 2006 as part of an international consortium of learning sites including the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy in the United States, the Oxford Brookes University in the United
Kingdom, and the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in France.
Bruno van Dyk
The multi-disciplinary Master in International Studies and Social
Entrepreneurship Programme (MISP) at the University of Bologna is
dedicated to the study of philanthropy, non-profit organisations, and
social entrepreneurship. UKZN’s growing involvement in the programme
is being facilitated by the UKZN Foundation.
Contact Bruno van Dyk by email at [email protected]
5
University of KwaZulu-Natal
School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness
Food for Africa
A
grant by the Ford Foundation has enabled the University of KwaZuluNatal (UKZN) to plan a pioneering new Centre on its Pietermaritzburg
campus. To be known as the African Centre for Food Security, this facility aims
to provide high-level and contextually appropriate food security training, research and advocacy on a continent where food deprivation has reached catastrophic proportions. It is currently estimated that some 200 million people in
sub-Saharan Africa are chronically undernourished and this number is expected
to increase dramatically over the next decade.
The Centre is to be developed on the basis of UKZN’s existing Food Security
Programme, which is presently the only trans-disciplinary training programme
in the world offering named qualifications in the field of food security. Established in 2001 in response to widespread demand for the inclusion of food security training in the curriculum, the programme currently has 12 Doctoral and
12 Masters students, offers a Postgraduate Diploma in Food Security, and provides elective modules for a range of other academic programmes.
Owing to enormous demand for food security training from elsewhere in
Africa, as well as the urgent need for a dedicated facility to lead capacitybuilding, research and advocacy on the continent, UKZN is initiating the new
Centre in the hope that it will extend the benefits of the existing programme
to partner institutions in other sub-Saharan African countries. The Centre is to
be located within the School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness in the
Faculty of Science and Agriculture, which is indisputably one of the continent’s
premier sites for research and training in the fields of agriculture, the environment and rural development. Not only is this School home to the oldest agricultural degree programme in southern Africa, but it also incorporates the
largest constellation of agricultural and related disciplines of any university in
Africa.
Food security studies is essentially a new field born of the recognition that
the most effective means of addressing hunger and its underlying causes is
through cross-sectoral and trans-disciplinary strategies. Simply speaking, food
IN THE THICK OF IT: A student field-trip in KwaZulu-Natal.
6
University of KwaZulu-Natal
security is achieved when people
have continued and sustainable
access to an adequate and healthy
supply of food. Food insecurity is
experienced when individuals and
communities lack access to such
food, and is manifest in poverty and
hunger. The causes of food insecurity include factors ranging from
technical problems relating to food
production and distribution to institutional, social and policy constraints affecting the diets of
individuals, households, communities and sometimes whole nations.
“Cross-sectoral planning and a
trans-disciplinary approach are absolutely critical if food insecurity
is to be addressed effectively”,
explains Professor Sheryl Hendriks,
Head of the Programme. “Food insecurity straddles issues of farming methods and agricultural
production, distribution and marketing systems all the way through
to such factors as political structures, grassroots leadership, household structure, and gender. It
follows that an integrated and
trans-disciplinary approach is bestsuited to addressing problems of
hunger and malnutrition in subSaharan Africa.”
Academic and research programmes on food security at UKZN
currently draw on scholars and
practitioners from a diversity of
backgrounds ranging from, among
others, Biochemistry, Agricultural
Economics, Animal Science, Crop
Science and Dietetics to Information Science, Political Science,
Theology and Sociology. The backgrounds of students are similarly
diverse, including academia and
research bodies, the public service, and non-governmental organisations. Students enrolled for one
or other of the postgraduate qualifications on offer currently come
from 13 African countries.
School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness
A major campaign to raise funding for the Centre is now underway
under the leadership of the UKZN
Foundation. The key goals are to
secure support for postgraduate
scholarships for students from elsewhere in Africa, as well as funding
for the core research programmes
of the Centre and its partner institutions.
Obtaining scholarships for
postgraduate students is a particular priority. “A critical mass of highly
trained practitioners, policy-makers
and researchers is crucial if Africa
is to turn the tide of hunger and
malnutrition,” says Professor
Hendriks. “Although our programme
has certainly begun to achieve this,
not a week passes without new enquiries from prospective students or
their employers about availability
of scholarships and other forms of
sponsorship. Our aim initially is to
secure sponsorship for a minimum
of ten students per annum from
other sub-Saharan African countries
to enrol for the coursework Masters
over the next five years. In addition, we hope that sufficient research funding will be made
available to support significant
numbers of doctoral students.”
Although the Centre will be located at UKZN, its training programmes, research agenda and
advocacy will be pursued jointly
with partner institutions from elsewhere in the region, with a view
to building food security training
and research capacity across the
continent. Joint decision-making
and shared ownership are fundamental principles upon which the
Centre is to be founded. For instance, applications for scholarships and postgraduate research
awards will be considered by a
committee with equal representation from partner institutions elsewhere in Africa, whilst the research
RESEARCH THAT HELPS: Researchers advise rural farmers.
agenda of the Centre is to be defined and administered collaboratively with
these partners. “These are just a few examples of how the new Centre will
operate in real partnership with other African universities which share the goal
of leading training, research and advocacy in food security across the continent,” says Professor Hendriks.
The existing programme already has close ties with scholars and practitioners from such countries as Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. A four-way
Memorandum of Understanding is also currently being pursued between UKZN,
Makerere University, the University of Malawi and Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Sean Jones
SECURING FOOD: Students and community members during a field-trip.
The African Centre for Food Security will extend the scope and reach of
UKZN’s existing Food Security Programme by working closely with other
institutions in sub-Saharan Africa on food security training, research and
advocacy.
Contact Sheryl Hendriks by email at [email protected]
7
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Archbishop Denis E. Hurley Fund
The light shines on
‘His father was the keeper of the lighthouse at Cape Point, the guardian of the light that
warns the sailors of dangers and guides them away from destruction. The son did not follow
in his father’s footsteps, but he became a lighthouse keeper too; a guardian of the light.’
T
Alan Paton: Tribute to Archbishop Hurley on his 70th birthday, 10 November 1985
HE legacy of one of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s most distinguished associates continues today through the educational fund that was established in
his name. The Archbishop Denis E. Hurley Fund, whose namesake was Chancellor
of the former University of Natal, provides bursary support to economically and
socially disadvantaged students. R200 000 has been disbursed in bursary funding
since the Fund was established and 17 post-graduate students — in fields ranging
from Dietetics to Human Rights Law — have benefited from it.
The late Denis Eugene Hurley was ordained as Catholic Bishop of Natal in
1947, the youngest in the world: he was only 31 at the time. In 1951, Hurley
was appointed Archbishop of Durban, a position he held until he retired in
1992. A deeply religious churchman, he also dedicated his life to a cause with
intense social and secular involvements — South Africa’s liberation struggle.
The activist Archbishop aligned himself squarely with the victims of apartheid
by lobbying, demonstrating, calling the media to account, and challenging the
apartheid political system through the courts.
The Archbishop was an early member and later chairman of the Institute for
Race Relations and a founder member of the Institute for Democracy in South
Africa (IDASA). In 1976 he founded Diakonia, a Durban-based ecumenical agency
of social concern. All three organisations continue to play an important role
today in the development of a culture of tolerance and democratic values.
From 1993 to 1998, as Chancellor of the former University of
Natal, Archbishop Hurley championed the University’s vision for social and political transformation. As
he said at the time, “When I speak
of vision I understand the term not
only as a pattern or paradigm, but
rather an image that moves and
inspires action....The secular world
needs a vision and that vision
should be an ethical one.”
The Archbishop spoke often of
the role and responsibilities of universities in teaching the leaders of
tomorrow. “Not only should students excel in their individual disciplines,” he explained, “but they
should also dedicate themselves to
the task of unity in South Africa.”
Despite challenging economic
conditions, the Hurley Fund is steadily progressing towards its
R1 million endowment target. In addition to attracting support from international donors, the Fund is
intensifying its efforts to build local
philanthropy and hence empower
South Africans to help themselves.
To this end, over 50 UKZN staff members are participating in a monthly
giving campaign through direct salary deductions, and efforts are even
afoot among students to begin to
contribute to the Fund.
Rudi Kimmie
GUARDIAN OF THE LIGHT: The late Archbishop Denis E. Hurley.
8
University of KwaZulu-Natal
The Archbishop Denis E.
Hurley Fund celebrates the
life and values of its namesake
and provides bursaries for
study at UKZN by students
from economically and
socially
disadvantaged
backgrounds.
Contact Rudi Kimmie by email at
[email protected]
Student bursaries
The Gift of the Givers will
provide eight scholarships and
bursaries per annum for
undergraduate study in
Agriculture. This investment is
in line with the organisation’s
interest in sustainable
development in Africa.
Contact Eleni Maunder by email
at [email protected]
CHEQUE FOR PROGRESS: Present at the launch of the Gift of Givers
Scholarships and Bursaries were (l-r) Professor John Cooke, Dean of
Science & Agriculture; Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of the Gift of Givers;
Professor Pete Zacharias, DVC: College of Agriculture, Engineering and
Science; Professor Eleni Maunder, Head of Agricultural Science &
Agribusiness and Professor Ahmed Bawa, DVC: Research, Knowledge
Production & Partnerships
Gift of the Givers
supports UKZN students
S
TUDENTS studying Agriculture
on the Pietermaritzburg campus are to benefit from the generosity of world renowned Pietermaritzburg-based aid organisation,
Gift of the Givers. The School of
Agricultural
Sciences
and
Agribusiness has received an initial
contribution from the relief organisation of R1.3 million for scholarships and bursaries.
Gift of the Givers Head Dr
Sooliman says that “we all know
Africa’s problems, but tangible solutions have to be found in terms
of drought, soil erosion, mineral
depletion and locust plagues.
UKZN’s Science & Agriculture Faculty has an excellent research facility”. A large proportion of the
Gift of the Givers’ work focuses on
Africa’s development and self suf-
ficiency. It is fitting that it should support African students who will ultimately
be able to make a contribution towards this cause. Dr Sooliman stressed that
his organisation is very discerning in its choice of projects to fund and that he
has complete confidence in the academic staff and programmes of the School.
The Gift of the Givers Agricultural Scholarships and Bursaries (by which the
awards will be known) will go to undergraduate students in the Agricultural
field for the express purpose of encouraging and rekindling an interest in agriculture and research for the benefit of the African continent. Eight awards of
R15 000 will be made each year. Three of these will be merit-based scholarships, and five will be bursaries for students who satisfy academic criteria but
need financial assistance. Whilst these awards will be annual once-off allocations, the intention is to enable each recipient to graduate. This, however, will
depend on academic progress and availability of funds.
At the launch of the scheme Professor Eleni Maunder, Head of the School of
Agricultural Science and Agribusiness, expressed her thanks to Dr Sooliman and
the Gift of the Givers for their generous donation. “We look forward to having
the bursary and scholarship recipients with us and following their progress,
both at the University and when they leave us to make their contribution to
society.”
Vicky Crookes
Originally published in ukzndaba, Vol 2 No 10/11, Oct/Nov 2005.
9
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Centre for Visual Methodologies for Social Change
Digital hope
H
OW can the digital divide between urban and rural schools be broken down?
What role can Media Education play in challenging some of the circumstances that continue to separate ‘have’ and ‘have not’ schools when it comes
to digital technology? How can the University contribute to and extend the
idea of multi-literacies through new media? And how does technology itself
contribute to ‘digital hope’ in an age of Aids and as part of social change?
These are some of the questions that a group of teachers enrolled in a
postgraduate module through the Centre for Visual Methodologies for Social
Change at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) School of Language,
Literacies, Media and Drama Education grappled with and began to answer as
they developed projects around chat rooms, websites and digital storytelling.
One answer, they discovered, is to twin schools that do have technology with
those that don’t. In the course of the module a group of 15 students from Nonhlanhla
Meyiwa’s high school English class at Zifikele High School ‘twinned’ with primary
school learners at Wykeham Collegiate through post-graduate student Maureen
St.John-Ward. The co-operation between the learners from the two schools revealed that more than digital divides are crossed! Learners from both schools
logged on to the UNICEF Voices of Youth website to speak out about violence against
children. They revealed the potential for ‘democratic learning’; when children
are all focused on the screen and helping each other to type in their responses,
they care less about age, gender, race or class and more about ‘speaking out’.
While the idea of twinning is not new and there are other advantaged schools
in the province that have community outreach programmes, this ‘experiment’
highlights the significance of digital technology as part of youth culture to
bring groups together physically as well as in cyber-space.
In another project 39 Grade Five learners from student Thembinkosi’s Mbokazi’s
Sundumbili Higher Primary School, took over the four terminals at an Internet Café.
Again they joined the global community of youth on-line, speaking out against violence against children. Another group of learners affiliated to Masters student Lucky
Govender, from Woodside in Chatsworth, joined the discussion by logging on at the
Edgewood campus on a Saturday morning. Masters student, Sandra Roopram, had
her students join the discussion in their free time at school. Some of the learners
who took part in these on-line discussions are developing their own digital stories to address issues of
violence against youth.
Foundation Phase learners in
Nonhlanhla Nzama’s school, Gulube
Primary, near Mid-Illovo — a school
that only got electricity last year
and still has no telephone lines —
are beginning to cross the digital
divide. In Nonhlanhla’s interrogation within the module on the links
between the digital divide and social exclusion, she and fellow student Caryn Barnes have been
communicating on-line with Tony
Kelly, a doctoral student at McGill
University who visited UKZN last
year and is the principal of a small
rural school in Canada. Together
they are developing a joint rural
‘digital hope’ project, called “Imagining our Futures: East Coast Rural Horizons”. Their project will
represent yet another type of twinning within a global context!
But more than anything the
teachers in the group have revealed
the significance of ‘starting with
themselves’, developing in small
groups their own digital stories using a programme called ‘Movie
Maker’. Their narratives highlight
many of the issues that they deal
with in their own classrooms: HIV
and Aids, sexual violence, poverty
and family break-up.
These stories will be posted on
a dedicated exhibition space on
www.digitalgirls.org (developed as
part of a project through McGill
University and Concordia University in Montreal, Canada) and will
be linked to the Centre for Visual
Methodologies for Social Change
site: http://cvm.zr5tux.za.net/.
Claudia Mitchell, Caryn Barnes and
Jean Stuart
Originally published in ukzndaba,
Vol 2 No 12, December 2005.
CROSSING DIVIDES: Learners interact in cyberspace.
10
University of KwaZulu-Natal
The Centre for Visual
Methodologies for Social
Change at UKZN engages in
research on, and supports
innovative work in, the use of
v isual media and other
technology in promoting
education for social change.
Contact Robert Balfour by email
at [email protected]
Centre for Creative Arts
Celebrating the arts
T
HE Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) on the Howard College campus co-ordinates several annual festivals which are widely recognised as leading events
of their kind in the region: Time of the Writer, Poetry Africa, the Durban International Film Festival, and the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Festival. These
professionally produced festivals reflect artistic integrity and facilitate ongoing interchange between individuals and arts organisations that span cultures,
cities, countries and continents. All activities contain strong development components reaching into disadvantaged communities.
The festival programmes draw heavily
on expertise at the University of KwaZuluNatal (UKZN), particularly from the Humanities whose staff act as moderators and
facilitators. The expertise of visiting festival participants is also fed into the University’s
teaching
programmes:
choreographers give workshops in the
Drama Department and writers, poets,
filmmakers and others present seminars
and workshops in various disciplines such
as English Studies, Culture and Media Studies, Language Studies, Gender Studies, and
the Centre for Civil Society.
In 2004 the Time of the Writer Festival
worked together with the University’s Office of Organisational Culture to profile the
Ingede conference on African Scholarship,
which included some of the festival participants. During the Jomba Festival the
CCA hosted a ground-breaking conference
to explore the identity and aesthetics of
contemporary dance in Africa. A high quality report-book will be distributed to
dance organisations and cultural institutions world-wide.
The festivals are public events which are made broadly accessible throughout the city and also in township communities where there are significant partnerships with local organisations. Audience development is a key part of the
CCA’s work, providing access to arts and culture activities and participation
opportunities for disadvantaged communities.
The school programmes, involving school visits by writers and poets, and
also the poetry and short-story competitions for learners, are aimed at developing a culture of reading and writing amongst youth. The CCA’s forums with
the Department of Education, where festival writers and poets conduct workshops with teachers, are another valuable activity.
Originally published in ukzndaba, Vol 2 No 10/11, Oct/Nov 2005.
The Centre for Creative Arts at UKZN hosts a range of annual festivals
which draw together national and international artists with staff,
students, and members of the broader community.
Contact Peter Rorvik by email at [email protected]
11
University of KwaZulu-Natal
School of Mechanical Engineering
Baja scoops awards
T
The University of KwaZuluNatal (UKZN) Foundation is
HE Mini Baja Team of the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University
of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) recently participated in the SASOL Mini Baja competition at the Gerotek Testing Facility and Zwartkops Off-Road Racing Academy. Thirty-one universities and technical institutions from South Africa were
represented, alongside two teams from India and one from Abu Dhabi. UKZN’s
Mini Baja Team won the design category for best feasibility of mass production,
the runner-up place for the SASOL Mini Baja competition 2005 and an award of
third place in the endurance race.
The conceptualisation and design of the Mini Baja began in November 2004
with fourth-year Mechanical Engineering students. After a four-month
fundraising campaign, the students received R61 000 through sponsorships from
SASOL, Briggs and Stratton, Bearing Man, Hiveld Street, Toyota, Moody International, Johnson, Servistar, Grant Suzuki and Beethoven Lodge.
The Mini Baja Competition is held over two days. On the first day, the bajas
are judged according to their safety and driver comfort, road worthiness and
overall physical appearance. Performance is also assessed on the basis of a hill
climb, manoeuvrability around strategically placed beacons, a tractor pull which
is a towing and torque test, and acceleration and top speed. The second day
consists of a four-hour off road endurance race through mud pits and jumps.
UKZN’s Mini Baja Team completed 57 laps in the four hours and finished third
in respect of race endurance. Out of the 31 that entered, only 11 institutions
completed the race.
The Mini Baja competition tests vehicles for their torque capabilities rather
than speed. This competition originated in the United States. UKZN’s Mini Baja
Team qualifies to participate in the US Mini Baja competition in 2006 and is
currently raising funds to meet the costs of participation.
MaryAnn Francis
Originally published in ukzndaba, Vol 2 No 10/11, Oct/Nov 2005.
the fundraising arm of the
University. Its role is to
advance the understanding
of, and solicit voluntary
financial contributions for,
the general development
needs of the University.
It does this by securing
donations from alumni,
corporates, trusts and
foundations, both in South
Africa and abroad.
All of the projects which are
featured in this publication
are externally funded,
to a greater or lesser degree.
Should you wish to make a
contribution to any of these
worthwhile projects,
please contact
Ms Colleen Harrington:
Tel: +27 (0) 31-260 2019
Fax: +27 (0) 31-260 2536
Email: [email protected]
Postal address:
UKZN Foundation,
University of KwaZulu-Natal,
Durban, 4041, South Africa
Website: www.ukzn.ac.za/ukznf
Development Brief is produced
by the UKZN Foundation and
the Public Affairs and
Corporate Communications
Division.
A MUDDY VICTORY: The UKZN Mini Baja Team won several awards at the
SASOL Mini Baja competition.
12
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Layout and Design: ABC&D