Isithumba Community Development Movement, is an inspiring non-profit organisation that aims to serve the communities of KwaXimba. Amongst other things we do is serving our community with information that will help better the future of the eleven villages of KwaXimba. Doing so requires the depth of resources which is a challenge for the ICDM since it is a non-profit organisation and we rely on the kindness of our stakeholders who we share the same vision, namely to empower the youth in every aspect of life. Nevertheless ICDM continues to strive to empower the youth through our programmes.
The beginning of last month marked the beginning of a great relationship between Sandile Mbatha and the ICDM. With the help of the ICDM team Mbatha secured a large area of land in Isithumba. The land will be of good use to the youth in our communities. It had been neglected prior to our acquisition, with no proper management in place. Now our youth will get a chance to learn about farming and what it entails. Since this relationship started, ICDM is looking at expanding its programs and is excited to include farming as part of these programs. The farming project will also create employment opportunities for the unemployed youth.
The ICDM under 15 soccer team, played a tournament in Cato Manor, Durban. This is a tournament that our young soccer stars had been training hard for in the past few months. Even though we didn’t win, the kids were so happy to have taken part in this tournament. There was a heavy rain during the duration of the soccer event but their courageous effort to play all the games throughout the tournament was remarkable.
The month of September is commonly known as Heritage Month where we embrace our different cultures in a diverse society. On the 24th of September ICDM celebrated Heritage Day in style by organising and hosting our annual cultural event which was full of performances from Zulu traditional dance to poetry and King Shaka Zulu praise songs. The event was in the form of a competition where different groups and individuals competed for Shoprite vouchers. ICDM would like to thank all the participants and spectators who made the event a success.
As we aim to empower youth through education ICDM has gone to partnership with Vuleka Trust which is a non-profit organisation that teaches life skills to unemployed youth for a period of four weeks. The lessons are already underway and youths spend three weeks at Isuthumba and a one week at Bothas Hills where Vuleka reside. After the four weeks training the youth will get a chance to volunteer at ICDM for two weeks where they will be part of the daily programmes and ICDM extended programmes.
ICDM took 22 young people to the art gallery in Durban to an exhibition themed “Through Positive Eyes”. The exhibition was based on the stigma of HIV/AIDS and told stories from people around the world living with HIV/AIDS. The day was very informative and helped our youth to learn more about this pandemic. Now they have better knowledge of HIV/AIDS and they will share that knowledge with their friends and family and thus their exposure and learning from people who are infected will validate the impact of the exhibition. 
Next month the ICDM will be working on an international schools partnership to which kids from different countries and schools will engage in learning about the Sustainable Development Goals. In September 2015 World Leaders committed to 17 goals in order to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice and to fix climate change. To realise these Goals everyone needs to take part so the project aims to teach our young people about them to encourage them to become the generation that changed the world. This is an initiative from our good friend Kate Knight from England. It intends to have kids from Isithumba, Hillcrest High School and Kirkby Stephen Grammar School in the UK discussing the goals and completing a joint project about Gender inequality in the world. These discussions will be held face to face via Skype. On behalf of the ICDM, this project will be under the administration of our upcoming volunteer Christian Günzel, from Germany who arrives in Isithumba in October. We appreciate his willingness to help the youth at the ICDM and hope that he enjoys his stay.
The ICDM is also happy to announce it appreciation with the support received this month from BMW Berlin and Christian Pässler through our German sister organization UBUNTU- gemeinsam stark für Afrika e. V. This will help us have at least 10GB internet per month which will help a lot in our organizational communication. We would also like to thank Kate Knight’s fundraising contribution towards purchasing a computer that will improve the work and help the organization grow. The monies have been raised from staff at Kirkby Stephen Grammar School in the UK who have been extended a warm welcome when they visited Isithumba as part of the British Council’s Teacher Exchange program and who all support the vision of the ICDM. It is support like these that keeps our organization going and ensuring that the youth gets the opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have.
ICDM is also looking at intensifying its programs in the area of Isithumba and Kwaximba. We are happy thus far with the support and cooperation we receive from all our stakeholders and the youth of Kwaximba.
We are excited that we will once again be hosting an English-speaking volunteer, Siobanna Williams, from the US of America. She will be involved in our administration and she will be with ICDM for a period of one month. We hope that she will enjoy her work with us.
ICDM We are the future!!
