Youth NGO set to build new infrastructure in Lavender Hill

Rise Above Development project has been hosting ongoing holiday programmes with music, sports and games for children to be engaged while schools are closed. Photo: Supplied

Rise Above Development project has been hosting ongoing holiday programmes with music, sports and games for children to be engaged while schools are closed. Photo: Supplied

Published Jan 11, 2022

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Cape Town - Rise Above Development is making significant progress with the youth by running a holiday programme for children in Lavender Hill, where a New Youth Urban Oasis is in the planning phase to assist in youth development.

The new youth urban oasis will commerce construction within the first quarter of this year and will hopefully be open by April 2022.

The oasis will be using shipping containers as building material and boasts a music studio, computer lab, library and classrooms with community garden and multifunctional sport pitch.

Project manager Lindsay Cessford said: “This will open doors and minds and give the youth of Lavender Hill a safe space to learn and play. It will also to provide some infrastructure for organisations that are already running programmes with impact in the community.”

Mark Nicholson, director at RAD, said their programmes were created to change the lives of the youth in the area.

“It’s important for these kids because 90% of our kids are living in drug and alcohol-addicted households and for us it’s very important to try to draw them away from the social ills which will obviously make them better children,” Nicholson said.

The project has been running a holiday programme in the community, in order to keep children’s interest in school alive.

“One of the programmes was supposed to have 50 kids for the day, we found ourselves sitting with 230 children, and then we quickly had to get our resources in and recruit volunteers.

“With the youth centre, we can partner with schools and we can work on bullying and kids who are not interested anymore and we can find a way to get them back into schools,” Nicholson said.

He added that the programmes are focused on supporting youth rather than dictating to them what to do.

“Our children need to be supported more, and given more love. We believe that we have to do things children want to do, there are some who want to sit with a book all day and we have to encourage that,” Nicholson said.

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