School needs cash to tango
AFTER losing two major funders, Hout Bay dance school Amoyo is calling on the public to help save their school so it can continue improving the lives of young pupils in Imizamo Yethu.
They launched a Backabuddy crowdfunding campaign on April 30 to raise R480 000. So far they have only raised R109 185 from 50 funders.
The dance school caters to the poor children in Imizamo Yethu township in Hout Bay and has had a remarkable impact on the lives of these youngsters.
Amoyo offers classes in African dance, contemporary dance, ballet, rhythm and music, hip hop, speech and drama, singing and musical theatre, djembe drumming, as well as weekly one-on-one mentor sessions.
It also offers matric support – career guidance, study guidance, study accommodation for a week or two leading up to exams, assistance with a matric dance if required, family visits and trips to the theatre and motivational youth seminars.
Dancers do community performances as well as corporate and public events.
Amoyo recently started a health clinic in the community.
It teaches 32 classes a week to the youth, keeping them off the streets, safe and motivated. Classes cost approximately R2 500 a term per child.
The founder, Kim Worrall, 43, from Hout Bay, was volunteering in the victim support centre at the local police station, when she became increasingly aware of the lack of self worth experienced by young children
‘Many of our students come from difficult backgrounds’
in the area and how that often related to poor choices and runins with the law.
Having majored in speech and drama and effective communication, Worrall met with Mandisa Qwesha and Nandipha Sandlana. Together they established Amoyo, a non-profit organisation and comprehensive performing arts school to deal with poverty through the discipline of dance and as the name indicates, the spirit of gratitude.
“Many of our students come from difficult backgrounds where there’s domestic violence, a lack of stability, absent parents and unemployment. Some live in extremely cramped conditions and don’t have a proper meal at home. With Amoyo we have become the family many of our students don’t have,” Worrall said.
“In two and a half years we have increased school attendance, quadrupled our number of attendees, decreased teenage pregnancies by 100% to zero in the last 18 months. We have potential school drop-outs now becoming role models and leaders, and we have children auditioning and being selected for professional shows,” she said.
Amoyo has received the Ministerial Award for “excellence in developing self-expression through the arts”.
One of Amoyo’s students, Onela Metuso, was selected for a year’s working internship in Germany. On her return she was accepted into the Waterfront Theatre School together with Amoyo matriculant Lindelwa Hlophe. Each received a R500 000 fiveyear bursary provided by The Waterfront Theatre School and named The Amoyo Bursary in recognition of Worrall’s efforts who graduated as Student of The Year from The Waterfront Theatre School in 1999.
To donate visit https://www. backabuddy.co.za/amoyo-performing-arts-foundation