Youth set on making a difference in their communities

The youth of today are designing the South Africa of tomorrow, but sadly many, young South Africans lack proper guidance and support as well as basic life-skills training, which is critical to building a sustainable future for themselves and the generations to follow. Furthermore, they stare a range of social pressures and challenges in the face, just waiting to derail them off course.

In light of Youth Month, the WNS Cares Foundation through its Youth4Change Movement seeks to highlight the power of positive interventions to educate, empower and enrich South African youth.

This is according to Megan Meredith, Corporate Social Investment Manager for WNS South Africa, who says the Youth4Change Movement aims to help young South Africans bring about much-needed positive change within their own school or community, for their own peers and through their own efforts.

"Youth from underprivileged schools across the country are selected to participate in a life-changing programme called, the Towards Tomorrow Leadership Programme. This six-month programme sees the group of youth undergo leadership skills training that they put to into practice through planning and implementing an upliftment project within their own communities," says Meredith.

"Upon completion of the programme and project, the youth graduate not only with a certificate, but a range of newly acquired skills and experience to help them build a success for themselves in the real world. As the final phase of the project, youth are given an opportunity to apply for an internship with WNS, provided that they passed matric and had not yet secured other opportunities to advance in academic arenas," she adds.

Past projects include fixing broken toilets at Masiphatisane Secondary School in Motherwell, in the Eastern Cape, establishing a computer centre in Philippi on the Cape Flats, revamping an existing library and adding computer technology to a school in Mitchells Plain, and developing a safe haven for creativity through an Arts & Culture centre at Tlhatlogang Secondary School in Soweto.

Currently, youth from gang-stricken Manenberg in Cape Town are in the final phases of transforming their old school hall into a vibrant space for extra-mural activities. Youth from Charlotte Maxeke High School in the township of Tembisa, on Gauteng's East Rand, have identified the need to re-purpose their sick bay from being a storage room to serve the function it was intended for. In addition, they will see to it that the sick room is well stocked with the necessary medical supplies. Classrooms at the school will also be fixed up and brightened with a splash of colour.

A group of youth from Sinethemba High School in Philippi have furiously started a drive to upgrade their bathroom facilities at their school and are committed to ensure that water saving devices are installed and that educational workshops and awareness around water saving takes place, given the current water crisis the region is experiencing.

One of the youth from Newlands East Secondary School in KwaZulu-Natal said this after completing the Towards Tomorrow Leadership Programme: "I have the potential to do anything."

Sharing this sentiment, a learner from Masiphatisane Secondary School said: "The project helped me to see the potential that I have and didn't know that I possessed."

"I did not believe in myself, that I could accomplish something this big, and actually do good for others," another student from Thlatlogang Secondary School, in Soweto, said.

Meredith says, as the Youth4Change Movement, conceptualised by WNS South Africa, nears its second year of existence, the past success and progress made has proven the immense value it can add to the lives of South African youth; however, there is still so much that can be done.

"Such interventions are critical to guiding our youth to work towards their own personal success and, as a result, be a positive influence to their peers by the decisions they make. A great responsibility rests on corporate South Africa to facilitate these opportunities for intervention and invest in the youth, as the future of the country, and possibly their organisation, depends on it," concludes Meredith.