K'litsha voluunteers fight xenopobia hrough language lessons

Brenda Nkuna

A group of South Africans and African immigrants are out to stop xenophobia and unite Africa. And their tool of choice is language lessons, which they are offering to Khayelitsha residents at the cut-price rate of R3.50 per hour.

Falling under the Get-up Stand-up Campaign, a Khayelitsha NGO, the lessons offer Khayelitsha residents the opportunity to learn Swahili, Portuguese, Shona, English and French.

Project coordinator Nkwame Cedile said by teaching languages to locals in Khayelitsha’s Site B and C they hoped that people would find “no need to argue and call each other names”.

“We want to build bridges in our communities,” he said.
Cedile said Khayelitsha residents were eager to learn English and other languages from the seven volunteer language teachers, who offer classes daily between 6pm and 7.30pm at the Holy Sirna Church in Site C.

Zimbabwean volunteer teacher Willard Kambeva said he was happy to know that he was making a “huge” impact.

Kambeva said when he first began classes three weeks ago, there were only five people, but now there were about 50.
He said it was important to keep the lesson prices low so that people could afford them.

Site B resident Thandokazi Cengani, a Grade 11 learner at Cathkin High School in Athlone, said the lessons would assist her in communicating with others and help her if she wanted to pursue a career overseas.

Cengani said so far she had learnt basic Shona words.
She said she always took notes in the classes and most of her friends and family were also interested in learning.

“I am making a sacrifice to come and study at these lessons, but they are worthwhile. I want to be multilingual,” she said. — West Cape News