Cebo Mzinyane who is a University of KwaZulu-Natal Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering graduate is also the founder of NPO Monarkhia of Academy which works in the INK area with children giving them a platform where they can showcase what they are capable of in sports, recreation, and academics. Picture: Supplied.
Durban — A collaboration between a non-profit organisation founded by a University of KwaZulu-Natal graduate and the Durban University of Technology will see the organisation provide internships to students.
Monarkhia Academy founder and Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering graduate Cebo Mzinyane said their organisation will be a platform where their students studying towards a degree in Child and Youth Care can gain practical experience in turn providing the NPO operating in the INK (Inanda, Ntuzuma, and KwaMashu) area with much needed skilled manpower.
“It will be an added benefit that the students are trained in theory to work with children. It’s a win-win situation and this will help our organisation create the environment we envision for children to flourish and grow through our programmes. We engaged with the institution at the beginning of April and our first batch of students will join us in the second semester.”
Monarkhia Academy, through its work with underprivileged boys and girls in the INK area, aims to create a bright future for youngsters by giving them a platform where they can showcase what they are capable of in sports, recreation, and academics.
The academy which had been focused on soccer when its seed was planted now offers drama and filming exhibitions and with its social development division offers mentorship, life skills looking at anti-drugs, anti-crime as well as social cohesion during team talks after training and games.
The academy has also expanded its sporting codes.
“Next year there’s a possibility of us getting a maximum of 30 students and with this will come an opportunity for us to expand our programmes to reach more schools.
This opportunity means a lot to our organisation – the students will work with children in schools and we will also be able to take full advantage of it by getting community volunteers trained in the process,” said Mzinyane.
He explained that the NPO had been struggling with volunteers especially working with schools.
“The school environment is professional, and we can’t just select anyone to work with school children. The organisation is still teething and we have no mechanism to screen people.
“So the volunteers we pick have to be people we have personally screened and people with a passion for working with children. We want to create an environment where children will be safe and this has been the challenge, we have to be very hands-on when it comes to screening volunteers so that we have the right people working with children within our programmes for them to be effective.”
Mzinyane said it was due to this challenge and the fact that they had few volunteers that the NPO came up with the idea of approaching universities to remedy this.
“I heard that DUT offers a Child and Youth Care Degree and I approached one of the lecturers there and fortunately she was the person involved with community engagements within the faculty. The faculty was open to collaborating with us more especially since its students needed practical experience before graduating,” he said.
Lecturer Charlene Singh from the Child and Youth Programme at DUT said that she is hoping to place as many students with the academy.
“The students that I want to place are the fourth-year students because they are expected to do their practical placement or experiential learning in communities and schools. The placement of students is an integral part of our curriculum especially at fourth year because we are preparing them to get into the field once they graduate. This collaboration is important because it aligns very closely with DUT’s envision 2030, which is a strategic objective of the university and one of the philosophies of these objectives is to improve lives and livelihoods,” she said.
Singh explained that they would enter into a contract with Mzinyane’s academy and placed students would go once a week to different schools implementing and engaging with the academy’s planned programmes and shadowing teachers and other partners in the community.
“Our students will graduate to be child and youth care workers who work with vulnerable children even with communities that are at risk and marginalised. They can work at children’s homes, at the courts as intermediaries and in a hospital setting where they will be providing psychosocial services and counselling,” she concluded.
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