Phandulwazi advances Collaborative Learning & Development for people to “Reach Their Dreams” Revamp and relaunch marked for 2023
By Thandisizwe MGUDLWA
CAPE TOWN/South Africa: Phandulwazi Educational & Development Centre in Langa, Cape Town is mobilising stakeholders to to advance Collabarative Learning & Development.
According to Phandulwazi, Collaborative Learning will foster collaborative planning and development.
Since its inception in 1988, Phandulwazi Educational & Development Center has given birth to Ulwazi Youth Centre, Phandulwazi Educare Centre and another branch in Mthatha, Eastern Cape province among other developments.
At its inception, the founder Zora Mehlomakulu was driven by a desire to see people reach their full potential in life.
Previously called Phandulwazi Workers Skills Development Project, the organisation is situated on 13 Johnson Ngwevela Street in Langa (ZONE 5 (opposite Zone 16) Cape Town, South Africa.
The Phandulwazi (Searching for Knowledge) concept, which is a skills’ development and multipurpose centre, is really based on promoting Collaborative Learning & Development through partnerships and cooperation with mostly like minded groups.
The sharing of information, resources and ideas greatly influences the Collaborative Learning & Development model.
Phandulwazi (Searching for Knowledge) exists to develop, nurture and train people, youth and children, families, enterprises to become economically self reliant, to build communities and impart to others, skills, knowledge, information, resources and a user friendly networking nerve group for the intellectual, spiritual, emotional and socio-economic development of all people, so that we can all live happy, healthy, fulfilling, prosperous lives and achieve our full potential in this great life.
Phandulwazi has been addressing challenges like unemployment, skills shortages, crime, underdevelopment, poverty among other societal ills plainly due to the partnerships in has forged over the years.
This has been done with the collaboration and cooperation with stakeholders & shareholders including government departments to bring about a peaceful and prosperous society. Some of the independent groups Phandulwazi has worked with over the years include Ikamva Labantu a charitable Trust that has helped millions of people across South Africa. Ikamva promotes sustainable socio-economic change in the most vulnerable communities.
Another group,Ilitha Labantu provides services for women and children affect by violence in South Africa.
Some of the milestones for Phandulwazi include “kulula.com plants 1 250 trees in Western Cape in celebration of Youth Day” in 2011; 67 minutes spent with children by the Early Learning Resource Unit (Elru) in 2016; Reach Your Dream programme; Afternoon classes for bead making; Lungelo Health Care Centre Community Development and many other programmes.
The 34 year old organisation has been looking at a number of projects, programmes and campaigns in addressing the challenges we face in our country; and especially Cape Town with the special focus being on the under-served communities, these are clearly areas that suffer the most from everyday hardships of urban & rural lifestyle due to historical and current imbalances.
For example, over the years we have positively impacted, equipped and empowered more than 1000 people through multiple programmes with our partners on various artisan skills, business and entrepreneurship programmmes to mention but a few. And our work has resulted in the creation of jobs.
The organization was born out of a need at a time when there was unemployment and generally a skills crisis, which by the way still confronts the country.
The organization further targets different organs of society including the media, civil society, business, labour and governments to promote collaboration and communication on issues affecting various sectors and to further lobby for the government’s support in promoting the interest of stakeholders and attending to the needs of the communities accordingly.
Phandulwazi media blogs further express and reflect the work, vision and mission of the organisation with a viewership of more than 400 000. The blogs are Africa Biz (http://africa-biz.blogspot.co.za); The African Recorder (http://theafricanrecorder.blogspot.co.za); Choose n Grow (https://choosengrow.blogspot.com); & TM Publishers (https://tm-publishers.myshopify.com).
Phandulwazi is big on enterprise and skills development and the transfer of skills, information, knowledge and resources, promoting networking, participation & involvement and boosting of capacity building for the business and the private sector broadly.
As it is approaching its 35th Anniversary in 2023, moves are in place to revamp and relaunch this proud and glorious institution to be more relevant and in line with the modern challenges facing communities in South Africa and elsewhere.
On this front, we can list the Ikamva Youth Alumni | Facebook … 2022 organized by the Phandulwazi Educational & Development Centre in Langa, … “Support them on their journey to reach their academic potential.”
The current main operations are Outreach programmes including, children’s workshops by Encounters, youth groups, Afterschool programmes (Equal Education Foundation), and business workshops, to name a few.
Other organisations have a working relationship with Phandulwazi and community structures from youth & women groups, the elderly, etc.
The revamp of Phandulwazi includes the partnership Space Academy and Business Exploration Company (PTY) Ltd with a mission to provide research-focused interventions to bridge the performance gap, directed by legendary Pule Keswa.
Space Academy and Business Exploration Company (PTY) Ltd milestones include creating, implementing and evaluating a programme to establish and run a Youth organisation in Noupoort (Northern Cape); Preparing a tertiary directorate for a Strategy Review session ( UCT Human Resource Directorate); Setting up an organizational mechanism for 8 Cooperative working under Township Patterns and Conducting strategy planning workshops for Think Twice organisation.
These are serve to further support the Collaborative Learning & Development model.
Phandulwazi is one of the early enterprises in South Africa to be formed on the basis of the Black economic empowerment (BEE) programme.
On this front we call on investors, businesses, and industries to partner with groups like Phandulwazi for mutual benefit and to create jobs for locals while these enterprises stand to thrive, an example here is the retail giant, Boxer.
And community ownership should be around 49 – 51% agreement, subject to negotiations.
Phandulwazi’s association with Kwaito music, through our Kwaito Star programme is inspired by our love for the youth. We believe Kwaito has succeeded in reflecting the good, the bad and the untidy sides of South African ghetto life.
Kwaito is a weapon against the status quo. It also seeks to promote initiatives and entrepreneurship rather than depending on other people or the government for empowerment.
Kwaito has entertained and inspired millions of youths and elders in South Africa and abroad to seek to do good, be good and do better in life among its many achievements.
People and the youth especially, can now engage and empower themselves through our Kwaito Star app: https://soundcloud.com/discover
YouthsCareer.com which is, is another partner Phandulwazi is now working with to achieve our aims and objectives. YouthsCareer.com is an informative online portal, The portal hosts Job Opportunities, Scholarships, Internships, Volunteering and Tenders all in one place.
Rainbow Talent Agency has also joined in: https://www.rainbowtalent.co.za/.eduweb.africa has also come on board as another valuable future partner for Phandulwazi. eduweb.africa is the only comprehensive online platform to offer educational resources for parents, schools, students, school suppliers and teachers by creating a central informative digital space.
Phandulwazi is currently engaging with more possible partners.
Phandulwazi’s committee of Phandulwazi reaches out to the public as we love everybody.
We strongly believe that every human being matters, everybody has a story to tell and everybody must be supported to fulfil their God-given purposes.
That is why we encourage people, organisations, institutions, industries, and sectors to engage and interact with us through advice, suggestions, partnerships, donations, proposals, business plans etc, on how to rebuild our society for the benefit of everybody. You can connect with Phandulwazi through our page Phandulwazi KwaLanga on Facebook.
Thandisizwe Mgudlwa is the Director at Phandulwazi, an award-winning journalist, and bestselling author of the children’s book, Kiddies World. He holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Regenesys Business School.
