Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Program (VYLTP)

GlobalGiving VYLTP Report 
December 2024

Warm greetings and a HUGE THANK YOU!  We have finally shifted into summer and warmer, longer, lighter days and evenings, and are conscious of your wonderful generosity and support. What a full year it has been! We would not have made it without your generous donations and support. Thank you so much, we are so grateful! 

One of the big changes this year was the move to a new venue for the drum making factory. This now takes places in the local development training centre, where they share space with other community based groups. It is more accessible for visitors, and more visible in the community.  The rent is higher but it is worth it. The young people cleared out and cleaned up some of the buildings on the property, including a boma space where visitors can join them in a drum circle. 

Our young leaders in training continued with the Thursday modules that take place at Volmoed.  The Gender Based Violence module continued, and was followed by a module on fundraising, along with cross-cultural orientation and serious drumming practice, all in preparation for the tour to the USA in November.

Our stellar staff member, Siyabonga Vonco, who was part of the original leadership training cohort in 2016, made headlines in the local Whale Coast Magazine. He is an enormously talented, committed young man, who manages the day to day operations and oversees the youg people with a watchful and caring eye.  What a gift he is to VYLTP and to the community! 

VYLTP held a couple of fundraisers as part of their training in fundraising – a cookout with BBQ boerewors (sausage) rolls, and an amazing silent auction. 

The huge focus was the USA ‘Drumming Tour For Unity and Hope’ in the USA Midwest, when twelve experienced drummers went on an almost three week tour, together with chaperones Edwin Arrison and René August, and drumming partners Bevil Spence and Ivana Schafer.  It was an enormous amount of work as none of them have travelled before. We raised money and bought and borrowed and got it together, by hook and by crook!  One of them sewed a gorgeous uniform for them with beaded accessories – and they were donated warm jackets for the cold weather. 

The trip was made possible by the extreme generosity of a group from Indianapolis who visited with the Volmoed Youth drummers last year, the Indianapolis Center for Middle East Peace. Bevil the drummer spoke about PASIC, the annual Percussionist Convention in Indianapolis, which the visitors knew, and then said, ‘You have to come and visit and make a tour.’  The group played in ten cities in Indiana, Michigan and then Chicago, also attended PASIC, and had the most exhilarating, exhausting, challenging, amazing, unforgettable time of their lives. One of them said, ‘wherever we go, they all love us.’  They were the stars of the convention, always being asked to perform, as they also sing and dance. The timing 

immediately post the US election meant that their presence brought joy and hope and tears and much more to literally thousands of people.  We are very proud of our Volmoed Youth drummers and it seems they have a bright future. 

There was also a team of drummers who stayed behind,  to drum to welcome a diverse group of guests for a public lecture at the city hall by the former archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.  A week later they led the now annual visit to the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business to give a workshop to the last session of the part time MBA students, who come from numerous countries and all over South Africa. Our young people told the story of VYLTP and showed how they make the drums. UCT ordered thirty small drums for the students, who were gifted with these drums during the workshop.  The master drummer/storyteller Themba Lonzi helped our group to prepare for the drumming, and they rehearsed their public speaking. Starting with dirty wooden pallet planks, donated by a local farm, each one describes what their task is in the process, and shows their equipment, from the pallets that are upcycled through the sandpaper and varnish, then how the holes, the rings and the ropes and knots make the drum, and then the decorating.

This was their first time ever doing public speaking and they did well. The UCT students were invited to give comments and suggestions. This group was fully engaged and gave excellent business suggestions. They told the young people that they have an amazing story to tell and a uniquely fine quality product to sell. Everyone drummed together and ended up drumming, singing and dancing in the plaza of the GSB. It was memorable and inspiring and fun!    

December holds various holiday events, and the young people drummed as part of a piano/drumming concert organised for a small group of funders. It was a privilege for them to be a part of this event. 

At the end of each year the young people receive a Certificate of Attendance that lists all the modules they participated in during the year. This year it was a moment of pride for all twenty of them.  This coincides with a celebration end-of-year dinner where they also receive a Christmas bonus, thanks to our generous supporters. 

Our  youth drummers again played at the annual Volmoed Christmas carol picnic, warming up the crowd and inviting them to join in the drum circles. This was a great success. The stellar band from Manenberg provided music again, joined by the gorgeous Hermanus Angels, local young girls, who all sang favorite Christmas songs and then a set of Christmas carols. This is always a highlight for the year.

As the year ends, may the holidays bring you time together with loved ones as you celebrate your particular traditions.  May there be great joy and love and may the hope of peace continue for our troubled world.

As always, thank you all so much for your support. We could not do this important work without the support of so many. We appreciate you! 

YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS ARE ALWAYS MUCH APPRECIATED!   THANK YOU! 

Links:

• Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Program

• VYLTP Report with pictures (PDF)
  

VOLMOED YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM REPORT         
AUGUST 2024

THANK YOU ALWAYS FOR ALL YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS!

Our VYLTP is always exciting! We have many different groups who visit, and there are opportunities for the young leaders-in-training to drum for various groups locally and visiting. The young people sometimes take international visitors on tours around Zwelihle and Mount Pleasant townships where they live, giving visitors a taste of the different cultures, languages and lifestyles in this region of South Africa.

They drummed for a local Rotary women’s group and explained how the drums are made, at a venue with a spectacular ocean view on a gorgeous sunny day that included a pod of dolphins swimming by just as the drumming started. 

They drummed at a local pub and watering hole on Africa Day in May, inviting those who watched to join in.  They drummed at Volmoed Retreat Centre on Nelson Mandela Day in July for 67 minutes, to symbolize the estimated 67 years that he served his country and the world. This was after his private secretary of many years, Zelda la Grange, had addressed the young people and other guests with a very inspiring message.  

Visiting groups have included the Tutu travel seminar, a group from St John’s Church, Lafayette Square opposite the White House, an Indiana/Midwestern group who work for peace in the Middle East, and Marquette University students. 

Their drum making continues on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, at the drum factory set up in a local church hall.  Just this past week, the drum factory moved to a new space, more accessible to local communities, with more reliable electricity, and will include connecting with other local community groups. This is a move with a lot of potential and we are excited. The hope is to get more visitors and sell more drums as a way of increasing financial support for these local, unemployed youth. This is also a way to reach and impart leadership in a very different way from the formal Thursday program, learning the art of discipline, work, teamwork, and more. 

Our formal leadership program takes place weekly on Thursdays at the Volmoed Retreat Centre, which is a highlight of the young people’s week. Each month has a different focus of learning and leadership. 

Topics and skills learning have included leadership; public speaking; spirituality, mindfulness and the  power of silence; nature gazing; gender based violence and femicide; reconciliation in South Africa; a weekly session by a Dutch volunteer, who aims to instill a love of reading in the young people – the motto being ‘a leader is a reader 

And a group of three young artists meet with an elderly Volmoed resident for artistic sewing lessons, producing some beautiful collage fabric art. 

Sometimes our international guests spend time with the young leaders-in-training, as a way of learning about other cultures and expanding their horizons. 

Another Taizé youth day was held in June, which brings young people together from the Western Cape for time together in song, silence, and reflection time alone, workshops, networking and walking to the beautiful waterfall.   

There is a fantastic opportunity for the young people in mid-November this year, to attend PASIC, the annual Percussionist Convention in Indianapolis, in partnership with Drumba and the drum trainers. This is a huge endeavor that some very generous people in the USA are supporting. There are ten young people selected to attend, along with the drum trainer and drum partner, and the director of VYLTP. Currently the money is almost raised for the airfares and passports and visas. The group is working hard each week to practice not only their drumming skills but their singing. They are  a wonderful group of singers and drummers who will most certainly make an impact at PASIC, and the leadership learning of the experience will be enormous.

In addition, they will tour and give a couple of concerts in Indianapolis, Michigan and Chicago. If you are interested in coming to PASIC, and /or attending a concert or two in those areas,  or in supporting the group as they prepare and continue to raise funds for this incredible experience, please contact Wilma Jakobsen at safricawilma@gmail.com.

What an exciting few months it has been, and will be!  As always, thank you so much for your support. We could not do this important work without the support of so many. We appreciate you! 

YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS ARE ALWAYS MUCH APPRECIATED! 
THANK YOU!

Links:

• Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Program

• Global_Giving_VYLTP_report_Aug_2024.pdf (PDF)