By Wilma Jakobsen | Project Leader
Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Program Report
August 2025
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS!
It continues to be a very exciting year for everyone in the Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Program (VYLTP), as there have been many inspiring events in the last few months.
Two of the 2024 cohort are artists who made a beautiful gift to thank one of our volunteers from the Netherlands. He had engaged deeply with many of the cohort and did a weekly session on ‘Leaders are Readers’ to introduce them to a love of reading. Their beautiful framed and mounted artwork used fabric and textures to make a picture of their weekly group session with him, and it was easy to see who was who in the picture!
16 June is National Youth Day in South Africa. Our VYLTP group travelled to Lavender Hill in Cape Town for a Youth Day event, exhibited the drums they made, and held a drumming session. They even encouraged the Western Cape official to bring the event to Hermanus next year, who liked the idea and encouraged them to speak with the organising team.
On July 18, which is international Mandela Day, VYLTP invited the local Hermanus communities to join them in drumming for 67 minutes, to represent the 67 years that Nelson Mandela dedicated to public service, fighting for social justice and human rights.
The event was held in the Overstrand Boxing Club, as Mandela enjoyed boxing and was a skilled boxer. Many people of all ages joined them in this event that brought people from diverse races and cultures in the Hermanus area together to celebrate Nelson Mandela. They made it into the local newspaper with a lovely article written about VYLTP and the drummers.
Every year in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape, there is a National Arts Festival. It was a dream for the new 2025 VYLTP group to go on a mini-tour to attend some of the festival. Thanks to a very generous donation by a major donor, and many other donations, the dream became a reality. They are quite new to drumming, but had been working hard every Thursday at Volmoed with Themba Lonzi, the drum master, to prepare. It was a fantastic tour, where they were hosted by various groups and families in the area. They were not a part of the official festival program as this was a learning experience for them. They did get to perform in the beautiful historic Cathedral which has great acoustics for music and hosts several festival events. They were able to perform both inside and then outside the cathedral. What a memorable experience this was! And a good way for the young people to develop character, new skills, confidence, and to see who the emerging new leaders are.
We are very excited that one of our 2024 cohort was accepted to return to the Taizé community in France as a long term volunteer for eight months. She had previously volunteered in 2023. Inathi left in April and returns in January, and has been involved in managing the kitchens, the children and family program, and a whole lot more. She is learning new skills that will be invaluable here on her return. She even met up with one of our regular leadership facilitators who was attending a meeting in Taizé. We were then invited to send two more young people to volunteer for three months, and they are currently applying for visas.
This week the VYLTP drummers welcomed the Tutu Travel seminar group to Volmoed with drumming, as well as the VYLTP coordinator who had been away on surgery recovery and sabbatical time. The group also sang for the visitors.
The young people continue to work in the drum workshop on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Thanks to your generous donations, we are now able to pay them a small hourly rate, so they receive a small amount monthly, according to the hours they worked. This makes a big difference as they are able to contribute to their families and putting food on the table.
They spend Thursdays at Volmoed, and this month the focus for discussion and learning is Gender Based Violence and Femicide. They also spend time drumming together, as this helps them deal with the stresses they carry and is part of the healing aspect of the program.
THANK YOU ALWAYS FOR YOUR GENEROSITY AND SUPPORT!
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