Teams of participating Grade 10 learners from each of South Africa's nine provinces were required to identify a social challenge that adversely affects their school or community, and develop and implement a strategy to overcome it. After district and provincial elimination rounds, finalists from each province participated in the national championships in Cape Town.
"We chose the topic 'Going Green' as we realise that caring for the environment starts with us," winning learners, Lungile Makgubela and Miyelani Manzini said. "The successful roll-out of our strategy involved recycling waste, developing a clean-up policy, planting trees and a vegetable garden whereby poorer members of the community could generate an income, and a clean-up of the surrounding wetlands. We generated awareness of our campaign through the local media, posters, petitions and meetings with tribal officials.
"The impact that the YCAP project has had is the creation of a cleaner culture amongst our fellow learners, and realisation of the need to be a responsible citizen. As part of the project we were required to develop a business plan of how we will spend the national prize money of R10 000, and we cannot wait to get started!"
Derick Layani, mentor of the learners at Hanyani Thomo Secondary was ecstatic, "These students have worked extremely hard at making a success out of their project, and in the process have inspired their peers to get involved in finding solutions to the daily challenges they are faced with."
Russell Girls High School from Pietermaritzburg, KZN was placed second in the competition and received R7 500 towards the success of their project. Redshedisitswe High School from Fezile Dabi district in the Free State claimed third place, receiving R5 000. A trophy was presented to the winning school and Certificates of Outstanding Performance and gift bags were presented to the participating learners.
YCAP was successfully launched by NPO Afrika Tikkun in 2010 and now powered by NPO Empowervate in partnership with Deutsche Bank Africa Foundation, The Department of Basic Education and Heartlines. The annual initiative has since developed into an exciting and interactive competition that encourages youth to be proactive and forward-thinking, and has seen the participation of 1,080 schools across South Africa.
"This annual competition is about so much more than winning," explains YCAP founder and CEO, Amanda Blankfield-Koseff. "We are effectively encouraging active citizenship from a young age. Each year we look forward to seeing these young individuals implementing some truly innovative solutions."
