Fit for Life, Fit for Work

June is National Youth Month. Sadly there is little to celebrate. 42% of youth under the age of 30 are unemployed. The employment rate of 18 to 24 year olds has dropped by more than 20% since December 2008. Only one in eight working age adults under 25 has a job. More than 80% do not have formal tertiary education, while two-thirds have never worked. Although the situation is dire, it need not be the case. There are bright spots of hope in our own backyard which equip young people successfully for a socially-responsible and economically-active future.  

The Etafeni Day Care Trust is an excellent case in point. More than 10 years old, the Etafeni Centre in Nyanga Cape Town provides 567 children with superb opportunities of development. Kids receive home visits, education, meals, computer skills, counselling, music therapy, holiday programmes, school uniforms, library services, an array of sporting codes, life skills training and more. The care-givers of the children are also supported and the HIV-positive mothers working in Etafeni’s Income Generation Programme are healthy and empowered.

In 2007, Etafeni started their ‘Fit for Life – Fit for Work’ Programme to help unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 30 years old find direction after finishing school and make them employable. Its intensive 12-week training programme supports students through personal development, to ensure students’ success in any work they choose. Students also benefit from specialised vocational training in areas from hospitality to electrical engineering.  They gain critical work-related skills such as English, computer literacy, obtaining Learner and Driver’s licenses, writing a CV, and preparing them for interviews.

Etafeni has mentored more than 240 young people since inception in 2007. 80% of Etafeni graduates find paid employment, internships with stipends, or tertiary studies with a bursary. Lingiwe (25), for example, who completed the programme, gushed about its impact on her life,

“I have learnt about myself. They taught us how to communicate, and to start by respecting yourself. I was so scared to stand up in front of people, but now I can. Now I can make eye contact. Our secrets are safe in the group, I started to talk about things I had never spoken about before, and now I am free”.

Etafeni’s workshops address issues of self-awareness, setting personal goals, and resisting pressures that limit students’ ability to achieve them. It also maintains a close relationship with students, providing a 12 month period of support after graduation. Based on its experiences, Etafeni has compiled a manual to help with replicating another site in Vrygrond, Cape Town which was opened and supported by Elton John, David Furnish and Annie Lennox last year.

Another site was opened in 2010 in Nwamitwa, Limpopo. Its graduates are building the centre as part of a construction skills learnership. These young people are integral to developing the project which includes a food security programme that is preparing 10ha of land to farm vegetables, poultry, goats, fish and fruit trees. Last year, Etafeni earned R20 000 in the October to December harvest. Fourteen graduates are also studying at the Madzivhandila Agricultural College to sustain this farming initiative or find work in this sector.

Etafeni is entrenched in Nyanga, making waves in Vrygrond and planting deep roots in Nwamitwa. As one of the most successful models for youth job creation in SA, why not provide Etafeni with wage subsidies?

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Photographs by: Michelle Baird