Isibukosabasha Primary School took the top award in the annual Youth Citizenship Action Programme National Championships which recently took place in Pretoria.

The school from Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal won the first prize for their project on health and safety, which included making their school taxi transport safer, their kitchen more hygienically operational and for saving water by re-using handwashing water for other purposes.

Madibeng Primary School from the North West Province was in second place for their community literacy promotion project and Iphuteng Primary School from Alexandra Township in Gauteng finished in third place for their tutoring programme to improve academic performance at their school.

The Youth Citizens Action Programme (YCAP) National Championships took place from 22 to 24 July 2016, with the main event taking place on Saturday, 23 July 2016, at the Faircity Roodevallei Hotel in Pretoria, Gauteng.

 “YCAP is an annual programme through which learners from primary and high schools across the country create projects aimed at addressing issues which they have identified in their schools and communities. These issues range from poor academic performance to drug abuse, teen pregnancy and road safety campaigns,” explains Amanda Blankfield-Koseff, Founder and CEO of Empowervate, which powers the YCAP Programme.

The aim of YCAP is to empower active citizens with the skills and confidence to make positive changes within their schools and communities instead of feeling hopeless and powerless. The award element is a source of motivation, which also serves to acknowledge the hard work participants put into their projects.

Deputy Director for Social Cohesion and Equity in Education, Ms Malebo Lefoka, said: “I hope that you, the learners did not only have a good time, but that you also benefited from the many intellectually stimulating exchanges that you were presented with. We appreciate the support and guidance offered by Empowervate. It is indeed a collaborative effort such as this one that ensures the success of education and making it a collective responsibility”.

The national secondary school YCAP winners were Lerato–Uthando Comprehensive School from Harrismith in the Free State.  The school tackled the challenge of the provision of sanitary towels, which caused girls to drop out of school each month and to fall behind in their academic performance. The school managed to obtain donations and succeeded in assisting 12 girls to return to school.

Northern Cape’s Postmasburg High School finished in second place for their self-esteem project and the Solomon Mahlangu High School from the Eastern Cape (2015 National Champions) took third place for their poverty alleviation project.

Prizes included tablets for the national winning teams. The top three teams received vouchers to attend short courses at Boston City Campus, as well as Ster-Kinekor movie vouchers and backpacks, a SpecCon’s Microsoft e-learning course for the whole school, and grant funds to expand their projects from the various sponsors.