Cape Town - In an area where youngsters often fall victim to social ills and the temptation of easy money, the recently established Greater Purpose Outreach organisation is working to change the narrative of the townships and pave a better future for Manenberg youngsters.
Having grown up in Manenberg, Yaseen Fortune, 22, who is an up-and-coming artist, is setting his sights on breaking into the music scene and promote music for the “coloured” community on the Cape Flats.
Fortune is also a soccer player for the Young Tornado Warriors Football club, and with the assistance of the NGO, he is aspiring to establish his own record label and recruit local talented artists, giving them a voice to prosper and bring change into the area.
Having to grow up without a father figure and experiencing challenges, Fortune said his ultimate goal was to become “the most dominant rapper” to have come out of poverty and made a change in his neighbourhood.
“Whenever you feel like you can become greater, there is not enough support for what you do, but when you are determined on something, you make it work. For youngsters in the area, we have no inspiration, as a result most join gangsterism and make all the wrong choices. We need that upliftment, someone to lead us by example, who will understand where we come from,” he said.
Greater Purpose Outreach co-founder Friedel Gertse said their new programme was to assist Fortune to get a foot into the music industry with the hope that someone in the field would recognise his raw talent and pave a way for him to build his legacy.
“The youth live in impoverished conditions where the families don’t work, so there is no or little income coming into the homes. Many of the youth also made it known that their parents aren’t in the position to send them to a tertiary institution to study further.
“So we wanted to find ways to help them and also take the burden off their parents. I realised all the youngsters loved playing soccer and that the best solution would be to bridge the gap between sport and education,” he said.
Gertse said a new project on the cards called Street Warriors, which would focus mainly on sport development, nurturing it from grassroots level, with the aim of bringing educational topics to the kids, would be implemented early next year.
However, he said that with all these programmes lined up, they were facing a challenge finding suitable volunteers or organisations in the area of specialisation to assist within the community, including with funding.