Page 118 - SCAT Rural Voice II - 35 Stories for 35 Years

YOUTH
took to the podium and made an announcement that the Strydenburg Future Leaders Organisation (SFLO) would be launched on 3 April 2012. The aim of the organisation was to address social ills such as school dropouts, HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, youth unemployment, end teenage pregnancy. WOW, I immediately realised that I needed to be involved and started sharing ideas with the Department of Social Development official and we exchanged numbers. I could not sleep that night as a lot of ideas were running in my mind. I needed to be part of this, and make a difference in my community
The next day we had a community dialogue. It was mentioned that we needed to formulate a business plan, establish a board and open a bank account for the organisation as DSD had secured funding for the organisation. I immediately offered my help. Office premises were already identified. I knew that with all the knowledge and skills that I learned in PE and Gauteng, I could help make SFLO work. DG Murray Trust was responsible for the renovation of the building. SCAT helped us with capacity building, governance and financial management. SCAT helped transform the organisation into a South African Pilot Programme on our way to put Strydenburg on the map. SCAT’s capacity building has done a lot to help change the outlook of our youth in Strydenburg to be ready to grab any opportunity. In no time we attracted more and more funders. The organisation now employs fifteen community members who all receive a stipend. This stipend brings financial relief to households and community challenges have been addressed for the first time. The programme grew and created more employment as SFLO was getting more government departments on board. School dropouts have been reduced. Strydenburg was once seen as a backward rural area but now the level of education of community members is drastically improving. This brings a lot of new challenges as these young educated youth need employment.
Strydenburg is served by the satellite offices of the government departments of Justice, Home Affairs, Education, Health, Social Development and SASSA. All staff of the different departments only visit Strydenburg once a week. At our community dialogues we clearly identified that these government jobs should be held by educated people from Strydenberg. This suggestion was not well received by some of these government officials as most of them are deployed with low levels of education.
SFLO is a community-based organisation and the input of the community determines the direction of the future of the organisation. The outcome of our dialogue with the community was that SFLO must continue to capacitate youth interns with skills and improve their level of education. Those youth that have acquired skills should be placed back into the community to do what they were trained to do. The community agreed to formulate a petition to all government departments including the Department of Social Service and Development to give clear direction on the operations of the organisation. All of these obstacles have been overcome and we now have learnerships in plumbing, bricklaying and local government studies.
This work reassures me that moving back to Strydenberg with my boys was worth it. My fears in terms of what I want for my children is overcome by the work done by this organisation. SFLO will carry on by investing in skills development and improving the once low level of education of community members in rural Strydenburg. To me being part of this flagship makes me feel good. I feel great joy when I am able to improve someone’s life.
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RuRal Voice ii: 35 stories for 35 years