Adopt a School

The concept of making school a better place than home is an incredibly easy thing to do. With this there will be a natural migration to school with attendance increasing and more children realizing their short term dreams and finishing Grade 1. Find out more

Friday Flik

For most of us, a trip to the local mall enables us to watch the latest movie on circuit, or take a trip to the DVD store. For others, most have never been to a movie house or seen a movie. Find out more

Enduro Africa

Enduro Africa is a unique and challenging motorcycle adventure in aid of 4 amazing causes – UNICEF, Sentebale – The Princes’ Fund for Lesotho, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and Touch Africa. Find out more

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SKY PROJECT GETS ELECTRIFIED FOR XMAS

2011-12-11

SOWETO KLIPTOWN YOUTH CENTRE GETS ELECTRICITY FOR CHRISTMAS

The Soweto Kliptown Youth Centre (SKY) was founded in 1987 by a then sixteen year old Bob Nameng. Bob’s mother had been a social worker and taken in literally hundreds of children during the course of her lifetime, in a humble Soweto home, situated in the centre of what is still a shanty town.

Following her death, Bob, decided that her legacy needed to continue and he founded the centre, which started as an after-school care facility. Today the centre provides hope and social services to those affected by poverty, abuse and abandonment. Children are referred to the centre by community members and the SAPS. Formal and informal programmes are offered to support children and teens. These include; visual arts programme, storyteller workshop and performances, Township Theatre Programme, Tourism Programme as well as soccer, netball and basketball teams. A close relationship has been forged with social workers and psychologists to ensure the continued well-being of the children.

There are currently 70 children living on the property ranging in age from to 17. The day care facility accommodates 50 children and 100 children attend the pre-school facility. There are 12 staff members who take care of the children and 8 volunteers who run the SKY centre. In addition to these services SKY has been attempting to feed more than 300 children from the community on a daily basis.
With no government funding for the NPO registered centre and all monies raised are through the generosity of individuals and corporate organisations.

When Touch Africa visited the facility we discovered that there was no electricity and the kitchen facilities were inadequate. A recent fire had all but gutted one of the kitchens and the ability of the centre to regularly pay for gas was becoming problematic. This was resulting in irregular feeding and cooking in kitchens which were unhygienic on less than adequate facilities.

We are proud to say that the Zest WEG Group came to our assistance and provided the funding to rehabilitate the kitchens and provide generators which will now run the kitchen facilities. The funding has also ensured that feeding will take place over the festive season and that diesel and gas bills will be taken care of for the next twelve months.