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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System Date: 18 Sep 2008 Title: Project to improve communities, skill youth -------------------- By Gabi Khumalo Pretoria - The Masupatsela Youth Pioneer Programme, which will see youth actively trying to improve their communities and the lives of the people around them while learning skills, is to be launched next month. The youth programme aims to develop the youth into "agents of change" by giving them the tools to conduct community service. The pilot initiative is expected to promote social cohesion, a culture of activism and patriotism amongst the youth, said the Department of Health on Wednesday. About 1 753 young people have been recruited into the programme to be launched in Mpumalanga on 24 October. October is Social Development Month. During their training the youth will be placed in their own communities and tasked with doing household profiling and registering Early Childhood Development centres. The theoretical training will commence in January 2009 and will be conducted two days a week for eight hours. The department also reported that 80 percent of the 152 youth recruited to participate in the Volunteer Assistance Probation Officers programme, through the National Youth Service (NYS) programme, had been absorbed as Assistant Probation Officers after completing their training. Launched by Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya at the Eastern Cape in 2006, the NYS was implemented in collaboration with the Umsobomvu's National Youth Service Unit, the Presidency and National Youth Commission. The NYS programme targets unemployed young people between the ages of 18 and 35, it calls for linkages between existing programmes and priorities of the department and national youth service in order to meet the basic needs or services. These youth programmes come as a result of research findings indicating that of the large numbers of young people who are leaving school, a majority are without matric, and are unable to access the labour market. "Addressing this urgent socio-economic challenge lies at the heart of two of our programmes," said the department. The department said the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach has formed the basis for the 914 Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP) projects dispersed throughout the nine provinces. "The bulk of the projects are located in Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal with the latter two provinces bearing more than half of all PRP. Seventy of the projects are focussed on food security and rural women's cooperatives, Youth Development projects are the least common followed by Dual Purpose Centres and HIV and AIDS. Speaking to BuaNews Health Director General Thami Mseleku said that the programme launched last month in the Free State was going well with 1000 households already put on the database. "It is expected to be launched in the Eastern Cape next week and in Limpopo next month," Mr Mseleku said. He added that on Friday they will be holding a consultative meeting with stakeholders, whom they intend to engage on government's anti-poverty strategy. - BuaNews |
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