Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Program (VYLTP)

VOLMOED YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM
DECEMBER 2023       

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS!

It has been an exciting four months for VYLTP. The young people have honed their skills at drum making, and on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, there is a busy hum of activity as each of them do their particular part in making the drums. In the first three months. they created thirty drums and in the second three months they made sixty drums. Many of those drums were sold to visitors to our project who had drummed with our young people and then wanted to take drums home. Now they are busy making drums for themselves to use at drum gigs and events. The designs on the drums are unique and can be custom decorated.

The big news is that VYLTP signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Drumba, which is the drumming enterprise run by Bevil Spence, who is the master drummer who trained our young people to play and make drums. This will mean improved skills, more marketing of the drums and the drummers, and in general is an excellent development that will help us build capacity, which is one of our most important goals.

The group was invited to the University of Cape Town Graduate Business School for the last class of the Masters’ students, a group from different countries working at various non-profits and companies. The group told their story and drummed with the grad students, who then heard that they could decorate and take their drums home with them, as our young people had made one for each of the thirty of them. What a glorious day it was!

Our Thursday Program continued to meet, but for eight weeks they had to meet at the drum-making venue. The damaged roads from the storms made Volmoed inaccessible, both from the increased transport costs for the longer trip and the dangerous nature of the only alternate dirt road.

The focus on education about voter registration, voting, and democracy in South Africa continues. A course on Spirituality, Mindfulness, and Silence, was offered by Wilma Jakobsen. This was a creative time introducing something quite new for the young people. They responded positively and expressed the desire to continue learning in this area.                                        

They proudly received their end of year certificates in mid-December, along with the embroidered Tshirts they will wear for special events. They thoro.ughly enjoyed a celebration meal at one of the restaurants that had provided great lunches for them twice a month              

The biggest celebration was that through the generosity of you, our donors, we were able to make good on our promise that they would start earning a small income through their drum making and performances. We were delighted to be able to give each one a Christmas gift, and though it was not large, was so exciting for them, and each one had a photo taken of their first pay check from VYLTP. What a joy to achieve this particular goal!  

As always, thank you for your ongoing support throughout the year. We are hugely grateful.

Whether you gave in the Little by Little, major donor, or Giving Tuesday campaigns or gave a donation in your own time, we appreciate you! You have made it possible for VYLTP to do amazing things this year and achieve many of our goals. Thank you so much!

YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS ARE ALWAYS MUCH APPRECIATED! THANK YOU!