Successful first year for loveLife Y-Centre

The Y-Centre, funded by a joint Volkswagen AG and IG Metal donation, was built to provide the youth of KwaNobuhle and the greater Uitenhage area with a safe haven where they can play sport and interact with their peers and adults. It is also equipped with a youth-friendly clinic offering specialised HIV and Aids advice, counselling and support services for teenagers and parents.

Over the past 12 months, the centre has been involved in outreach programmes to the 20 schools in the area, reaching over 20,000 young people. Statistics provided by the centre show that it has not only become an invaluable asset in counselling the youth of the area, which has a total population of about 90,000, but has also helped to launch several promising careers.

Maseti said that 10 people have been trained as Y-Centre "groundBREAKERS" (or 'gBs') to assist in engaging the youth of the area over the past year and ten more would be trained each year. The gBs have received mentorship from loveLife staff and from the VWSA peer educators.

Community radio station

The centre has pioneered a community-based radio station, loveLife KwaNobuhle, or Radio L2K, which is run by gBs who have received training in radio presenting through the centre. Now the station has a 5 km radius, but it is hoping to broaden that to the whole surrounding Uitenhage area in 2014.

About 3500 people engage with the station through social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp every month. The radio station also conducts approximately 100 interviews on community issues a month.

Youth in the area have been able to receive assistance at the centre covering a myriad of issues, including help with substance abuse; holistic health checks; reproductive health and HIV/Aids counselling; and counselling and assistance to women and children who have been victims of violence.

Centre receives 250 visits per day

"The centre has average visits of about 250 young people a day. It has become a hub of hope and an information centre for young people within this area," said Maseti.

There are a number of programmes that are drawing youth to the centre, such as sport and recreation [on fields outside the centre], debate on topical issues, arts and culture programmes [including poetry, drama and dance], the Vitality Room which has a professional nurse on duty and computer classes in the Cyber Room.

The centre's culture programme has seen such an interest from the local youth that the Y-Centre is about to sign an agreement with the Port Elizabeth Opera House, which will see drama professionals run training classes for youth in the area.