A range of activities was lined up for the day.  These included:

Poetry Reading
Specially selected poems, by famous African poets were read to the community by chosen teachers.  The themes of these poems included the search for identity, slavery, emancipation, heroic deeds by African and Afro-American authors, politicians and civil rights activists.

1st outside speaker - Colin B Adepoju
Colin is an inspirational speaker to the youth justice system.  The main thrust of his talk was that anybody can do anything if they put their mind to it, that we should not let whatever happened in our past adversely affect our desire and drive to succeed and that we should not allow anybody to tell us that we are not good enough.  He appealed to our young people to set some goals or targets in life, to believe in themselves and remember that nobody can make us inferior without OUR permission!  This was a call to adopt the motto: "I AM, I CAN and I WILL."  I felt that Colin's speech helped us understand that struggles, pains, disappointments and ‘disabilities' can be converted into a positive energy required for the attainment of our vision.

Research by Young People
In their tutor groups students were asked to go and research on key figures who have made an impact on Black History.  These included, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, William Wilberforce and others.

Report back to the Community on findings
Students were able to present their findings to the rest of the community.  This was by far a very successful exercise.  We had very detailed and sometimes colourful presentations - GT's presentation on Barak Obama comes to mind.  The students used their IT and organisational skills to research on a given character.  Well done boys!

2nd speaker - Siya Twanis
Siya works in schools and organisations delivering talks and active workshops on cultural diversity.  Having grown up under the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa and having fought against this system (spending four years in prison for this) there was no better person to talk about racism and how it makes the victim feel.  His message was simple:  There is no superior or inferior race - we are DIFFERENT!  We belong to one race - the HUMAN race.  Syha's talk was punctuated by brief activities which included lessons in the rich and vibrant Xhosa language and dances.  At this point almost all the boys joined in!  It was brilliant.

With a soft guidance and a loving smile Siya was helping our young people realise their dreams and steer them to reach their potential.