The 25th Khanya College Winter School was a very big success, there was a huge number of different activists and organisations that attended the 25th Annual Winter School. Together with activists learned about the importance of coming together as working class people with a common understanding or goal to overcome challenges faced by the working class communities. At this years’ Winter School, participants learned about the importance of Mutual Aid and its benefits within our communities, organisations and as individuals to overcome social issues.
During Winter School, the participants got a chance to learn about ways of organising, mobilising, engaging and how to implement mutual aid in their communities and organisations, in a way that is fair for everyone. This process allows an open inclusive participation for everyone and taking decisions as a group. It was emphasised in the winter school that the main purpose of initiating Mutual Aid projects in communities is to work as a collective and improve gender balance where every gender has a right to have an honest opinion without favouring anyone or any side but importantly solving our own issues and not wait for outside help.
After the lessons on mutual aid all participants were given a chance to showcase what they have learned. They were divided into six different groups and each group organised under each department which were logistics, media, kitchen (catering), program, garden and theatre. The main reason behind this activity was for the participants to see the importance of working together as a team and achieve a real goal.
So, each group was given tasks to organise and plan according to the department they were allocated. The plan was for all the departments to organise towards a big 25th Winter School Celebration Event, working together as a collective. As the planning progressed they had to present their work to the entire school to see whether those plans are attainable.
The Programme Team organised how the programme was going to be, Media Team had to make sure that they document, capture and update on social media, every moment that was happening throughout the day, the kitchen (catering) group was responsible for cooking and making sure that everyone ate and served, the Logistics team prepared the venue and arranged how people are going to travel to and from the venue, they kept track on the numbers of people attending the event and made sure that people are safe. The theatre group planned and performed a play about how unemployment is destroying our communities and the impacts of crime in working class environments.
The practice event took place on 18 July 2024 at Corner Lillian Ngoyi and Pixley Isaka ka Seme Street in the inner city of Johannesburg, where a lot of people gathered to watch the theatre drama that educated people on how we can end crime as a collective in our communities. The success of this organising was all done through the preparation of groups using the principles of mutual aid.
The big 25th Khanya College Winter School celebration event was on 20 July 2024 at Workers Museum in Newtown. Despite the challenges each group faced while working together and mistakes that happened during planning, the event came together and it was a success. All the groups presented their final work and the event was a true reflection of collective work and the power of coming and working together to solve issues for a greater purpose.
This article was submitted on 01 August 2024. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
