The Guardian Angel Educational, Environmental , Entrepreneurial, “Intrapreneurial” Network (GAEEEIN) hosted a youth workshop at the Athlone Stadium last Thursday to empower, motivate, and educate the youth.
GAEEEIN is an NGO which was founded in 2013 and hosts youth workshops to address challenges which face the youth and provide them with skills to overcome them.
About 50 youth attended the workshop held on Thursday July 13.
Founding member and director of the network, Christeol Moses, said the aim of the workshop had been to get the youth together so that they could network with each other and transfer skills.
She said the workshops allowed the youth to learn about each other’s cultures and backgrounds as they shared life experiences with each other.
“It gives them the skills to know where they are going in life, builds their self-esteem, and keeps them motivated. This also gives them a chance to give back as some of them are facilitating the workshop. They believe in themselves and believe that they can make a difference in their lives and in someone else’s.”
She said the NGO’s motto was “teach them to fish” and “the buck stops and starts with you”.
“It also teaches them to be independent and make a positive impact on other people.They need to be the change the want to see. All that they need is to be guided properly and shown that they have a purpose in life,” said Ms Moses.
Monique Dick, one of the facilitators, said she hoped to teach the youth to be more confident, and motivate them to find employment and not give up.
“It’s important for people to attend so that they can learn different things. People are always using their circumstances as an excuse but here we teach you how to use it to shape you and to not let it hold you back.”
Another facilitator, Mayamiko Kubalasa, said the workshops provided a platform for the youth who doubted themselves and were not motivated.
“Many of the youth have a lack of education due to economic faults such as disadvantaged backgrounds so some of them don’t have an education. We teach them to believe that they are capable of changing the country,” he said.
Granville van der Berg, 18, from Manenberg was among those who attended the workshop.
He is currently studying social work at the University of the Western Cape and said he hoped to learn new things that would be beneficial to his career.
“I want to be a human rights representative because currently the youth are in crisis so this will teach me how to help them in the future.”
Also attending from Manenberg was 18-year-old Rhadiyah Isaacs who is studying business management at the College of Cape Town.
She said that she was excited to get to know new people and learn new things. “We need to learn how to be comfortable with different people and by building our confidence we will be able to work with different people in the future,” she said.
