Sakhisizwe means: “Building a nation”
Mission:
Sakhisizwe Youth Development Program offers mentorship and leadership support to young people of ImizamoYethu in Houtbay ages of 13-25 years. We run an after school programme that offers academic support, sport, life skills, spiritual journey and creativity.
Vision & Values:
Our vision is to develop and empower young people holistically with life and academic skills, that will help them to make conscious decisions about their potential and well-being. It is to ensure young people stay at school and graduate from high school, whilst being fully prepared to succeed in the next phase of their lives.
Even though our young people are faced with life challenges of poverty, substance abuse, peer pressure, teenage pregnancy and other life issues, we at Sakhisizwe, believe that life is a journey and to you need people around you that will build you for the future. “Umntungumntungabantu” a person is a person because of other people.Objectives:
Sakhisizwe Youth Development Programme offers mentorship and leadership support to young people of Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay aged 13-25 years.
Sakhisiwe Youth Development Programme encourages and motivates youth, in particular young women to actively take control of their own development.
Motivation:
The young people at Sakhisizwe are from the community of Imizamo Yethu (IY), in Hout Bay. IY is a suburb of Hout Bay with a mainly Xhosa speaking population from the Eastern Cape province, as well as various Southern and Eastern Africa nationals. According to the 2011 census, the population was at 15,000 residents, however this figure is far from representative, there are large numbers of illegal dwellings amongst the designated housing area and it has expanded rapidly in the last 10 years. IY was established in the early 1990s, and although there is some service delivery, the rapid increase in people seeking employment has put a huge strain on services, in combination with poor urban planning and development by the City of Cape Town.
Over 50 % of the population is between the ages of 15-20, as well as the overwhelming majority is of a working age. Caregivers are often employed working 10-12 hour days, which will exclude travel-time to Cape Town on overloaded public transport. It will leave some children and youth at home alone to fend for themselves.
As many, cultural, societal, spiritual and traditional values are for the majority linked to homesteads and extended families in the Eastern Cape, where most children will spend the summer holidays, the need to actively harness positive role models is an important part of supporting pre-teens and teenagers to grow and develop in a healthy and confident way. There is an abundance of positive role models in the community and it is just a question of using their experiences and abilities in order to support youth with issues that most teenagers experience around their own development and well-being, as well as dealing with the specific realities of the context they live in.
As in many urban areas in Cape Town, youth unemployment is high, South Africa has the third highest unemployment rate in the world for people between the ages of 15 to 24, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risk 2017 report. The report estimates that more than 50% of young South Africans between 15 and 24 are unemployed. Disgruntled youth find other avenues to express their anger with the world they find themselves in, finding it hard to break the poverty cycle of generations in post democratic South Africa.
Gang-related murders in the Western Cape significantly exceed the trend countrywide, according to 2018 police statistics. Out of the 973 gang-related crimes committed countrywide, 808 occurred in the Western Cape. In addition, there is a growing trend of children as young as 14 being arrested on gang-related violent crimes. There has also been a steady spike in substance abuse – especially dagga and tik amongst children and adolescents according to the Western Cape Health Department.
This is an urgent wake-up call to our country, Sakhisizwe Youth Development program is a community program that provide an inclusive, youth friendly and motivating environment for youth who may otherwise fall between the cracks and have no voice. Sakhisiwe gives the youth a chance to be heard, function and excel in modern South African society with dedicated and positive staff and volunteers.
Background of Sakhisizwe Youth Programme
Many of the students at Sakhisizwe Youth Programme graduated from the non-profit organisation, iKhaya le themba ( http://ikhayalethemba.org.za/). iKhaya le themba previously offered an after-care programme for students, who were in grade 1-12. In 2012 decision was made that they would love to only work with grade 1-6 students. The older youth had to graduate and join other organisations in the community. Efforts were made to integrate these young people into other community organisations; however, this was challenging due to the fact that students had formed strong relationships to each other and to staff at Ikaya le themba.
In 2014, iKhaya formed a partnership with Ricky Pato and the Vineyard church to start a youth outreach programme with the intention of working with the iKhaya youth and other youth in the community. It started small with a Friday night youth club offering hiking and camps. In 2016, a community consultation was completed with youth and their families and based on the findings, iKhaya decided to formalise the youth programme and Sakhisizwe Youth Programme was born.
“When I graduated at Ikhaya le themba in 2016 I didn’t know where I will go, I’ve decided to join Sakhisizwe YdP. What I love about Sakhisizwe is that we meet on a Friday to worship and to pray for our families and future” Siyamthanda Sotyatya she is now in grade 11
“What I love about Sakhisizwe is that they encourage us to do the best at school, they believe in us and I like to sing and participate in sport” Sikelela grade 9 students
