June is Youth Month is South Africa. The P.E.A.C.E. Foundation firmly believes in the role that the youth play in achieving our goals and objectives in alleviating poverty in rural areas. Most of our programmes are either youth led or are focused on providing opportunities to youth in order to enable them to be key drivers in alleviating poverty in their communities. Save to say, our ERP Ambassador, Clement Maosa, is also a youthful role model who continues to inspire so many South African youth in a number of ways. We hope you will appreciate the highlights we provide below from the month of June.

VAALWATER CENTRE COMMEMORATES YOUTH DAY

The ERP-funded and supported Vaalwater Centre hosted a Youth Day celebration on 16 June. This was organised by the centre’s beneficiaries, mostly youth, who commemorated the day in their own unique way. Part of their activities for the day included designing and showcasing posters raising awareness of the rights and obligations of young people. Additionally, they invited motivational speakers from within the community who engaged the youth through public speaking and focused discussions.

UPDATES FROM WATERBERG WAVE FM

Leading up to the June 16th celebrations at the Vaalwater Centre, the ERP-funded Waterberg Waves FM hosted a series of Youth Month interventions aimed at engaging the youth through dialogue sessions and radio shows that addressed pertinent societal issues such as gender based violence, femicide and unemployment among the youth. Additionally, the station ran a series of interviews with beneficiaries of the ERP-supported Waterberg Welfare Society, giving the participants an opportunity to reflect on how the centre and its various programmes have impacted on them to date. This was over and above the daily ‘Hlago Ya Africa’ programme hosted by Letticia Mahlatji, aimed at promoting the ERP mission of conserving wildlife through the alleviation of poverty.

VAALWATER COMMUNITY CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN

Waterberg Waves FM also participated in a Vaalwater Clean Up Campaign aimed at encouraging the community to keep their community clean. This was in partnership with Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, Waterberg Tourism, LEDET, Modimolle-Mookgophong Local Municipality, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Working On Fire as well as local members of the community.  Over 160 people participated at the event, which saw waste being recovered and properly disposed of.

NTSHABELENG WASTE COOPERATIVE’S ACTIVITIES IN JUNE

The cooperative continued with their waste collection activities, though the winter season has seen a slight decline in waste materials that they can process. This is often attributed to varied consumer trends that are seasonal, hence a decline in some waste materials such as plastic drink bottles during this time of the year. On a positive note however, the Cooperative started harvesting some of their vegetables planted in May, enabling them to benefit once again from their ‘food for waste’ programme.

SEKELEKANI COOPERATIVE-GAZINI UPDATES 

We are happy to report that the Cooperative received their long-awaited certificate of registration, much to the delight of all its members. Thanks to the hard work, support and tenacity of Edward Malu, they become the first group to reach this achievement within the Gazini community. At present, the cooperative continues to prepare the land with a view to planting a new chilli crop during the month of August, having harvested an additional chilli crop that weighed just under 100kg during the month of June. Most of the remaining chillies were unfortunately damaged by the cold weather, but it is hoped that whatever is harvested will be dried and sold in the coming month.

MADIKWE APICULTURE INITIATIVE

We continue to plan for the full implementation of this project within the next few weeks. Currently, we are engaging the Barokologadi Community Property Association (BCPA) in order to identify a group of young people to be trained in bee keeping. We aim to train about 15 people, ideally female youth, in order to create entrepreneurial opportunities for them in agriculture and apiculture. The project will see 200 hives initially deployed over 4 months, whilst the identified beneficiaries will undergo a 1 week theoretical and practical training course focused on hive construction and apiculture. Further support and training conducted by Portia Morudi, will be provided on a continuous basis over the 4 month implementation period until the group harvests honey for the first time.