SOUTH AFRICA: Youth empowered by skills program
Salesian Institute Youth Projects focuses on youth who lack training, jobs
SOUTH AFRICA
(MissionNewswire) Salesian Institute Youth Projects, located in Cape Town, South Africa, is taking a pivotal role in developing programming for youth ages 18 to 26 who are neither employed, engaged in education, nor receiving training. Salesians empower youth by reintroducing them to learning, nurturing entrepreneurial skills, and providing valuable exposure to real workplace experiences.
The NEETs program combines essential life skills training with vocational skill training. Youth are selected from specific disadvantaged communities within the greater Cape Town area. This strategic choice is intended to foster social change within these communities, creating a ripple effect.
Youth are in the program for 12 months covering three learning modules of life skills and fundamentals such as language and math, an internship in social enterprises, and workplace learning within a partner organization, allowing them to gain practical experience in their field.
“Our aim with the NEETs program is to build on industry partners who will take these students in to provide them with job shadowing opportunities and or potential future employment,” said Gabriel Hamuy, NEETs youth employability program manager. “We call on local Cape Town businesses to work with us in providing these young people with the potential of a career.”
In 2023, 86 students are well underway in completing the “New Venture Creation and Wholesale and Retail Curriculum”, which focuses on hydroponics. This large-scale hydroponics community project involves workshops with students, their families, and community members, as well as the production and distribution of home hydroponics kits and the commercialization of produce.
Since 1910, Salesian Institute Youth Projects has been helping homeless, unemployed and impoverished youth in Cape Town, the second most populous city and legislative capital of South Africa. Salesians provide shelter, education and workforce development services, meeting the basic needs of the youth they serve while helping them break the cycle of poverty.
Poverty is extensive in South Africa with more than half the population and more than 63% of children living below the poverty line, according to UNICEF. A significant percentage of the population struggles to survive on less than $1 a day. The country is plagued by high crime rates and violence against women and girls, and it has been the hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS crisis in the world. There is an urgent need for education to help prevent the spread of the deadly virus and to help lift youth out of poverty.
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Salesian Missions – South Africa
UNICEF – South Africa
