Teaching young people life skills
Tsakane – The Founder of the ‘We Can Do This’ organisation hosted an event on Saturday, to bring together families with the aim of encouraging parents to be present in the lives of their children.
Matshidiso Silinda,the founder of the non-profit organisation, says she started it on June 16, after seeing the high number of children, from four to 20 years old, roaming the streets.
“Over the years, I have realised that sometimes we don’t have time to listen to our children and we don’t communicate with them, hence half the time they end up on the streets or being involved in wrongful activities.
“This is one of the main reasons I decided to start teaching children about respect, manners and humanity.
“We also have a huge problem of drugs, school dropouts and lack of respect among our children and sometimes these things happen due to lack of parental involvement in the lives of these children,” she says.
The group of 56 children meets every Saturday and the children are taught life skills and in addition they get time to socialise together so they can learn to interact with others.
Silinda encourages parents and guardians to start treating these children as treasures saying these young people are their children and are given to them by God.
“As parents and guardians let’s support, love and listen to our children because the main challenge they face is that, they normally need the support from home but sometimes don’t get.
“I would love to see these children grow up to be responsible and independent young adults.
“And in the near future, my wish is for them to be able to get school uniforms and have lunch for our meetings as others are really struggling and need help in their homes,” she says.
For more information on these classes, locals can contact Silinda on 072 370 5183.
