Amandla Development projects manager, Phelisa Manyisane Somciza presents their research findings
In an effort to strengthen its efforts to empower young people, Amandla Development held an informative workshop with various community stakeholders under the theme “It takes a village to raise a child”.
It was held in Samora last week.
The organisation said they regularly host these workshops, called the Philippi Collective Network, where stakeholders who work with young people, can meet.
At last week’s workshop, Amandla Development projects manager, Phelisa Manyisane Somciza, said there were many challenges young people faced, among them mental health issues, drug abuse and alcohol abuse.
And, said Ms Somciza,it is evident that these challenges impact directly on young people’s education. Therefore, she said, their organisation aimed to address some of these issues in order to have a positive impact on young people’s health and education.
She added that Covid 19 had played a role in “disorienting the developmental of young people”, with many of them having lost their jobs, 60% of children living in poverty and about 40% of new HIV infections being among young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years.
Furthermore, she said, 6.7% of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 drop out of school and 61.4% in this same age bracket are unemployed.
At the workshop, she said, they had looked closely at what it really meant when they said it took a village to raise a child.
“We looked at this village approach (which) needs to be brought back to our communities. As much as we understand that there is growing magnitude and complexity of social issues, we need to bring back this approach.
“We also looked at what it means they say it takes a village to raise a child in the current climate and we agreed that as stakeholders we need to come together so that we could be able to offer integrated services and services that answer children's challenges holistically.
“We also looked how the school works in trying to improve literacy and numeracy in our communities,” she said.
Desmond Tutu Health Foundation representative, Nosiphiwo Shabalala said it was always great to have such engagements which brought about unity and social cohesion in their efforts to achieve their goals.