WITH unemployment at an all time high, a local non-profit organisation has set its sights on using upcycling as a means to help empower the youth and ease the financial burden on local families.
Fifteen lucky youth from the communities within the Valley of 1 000 Hills were given the opportunity to take part in the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust’s pilot project, Impilo Entsha, which means new life.
Each of the students are related to the Centre’s Woza Moya’s beaders and are all between 18 to 25 years old, out of school and unemployed.
The project aims to create hope by opening new doors and equipping them with the skills and know-how to start their own glass-cutting business.
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The course takes place over three weeks, the first of which introduces the students to basic business skills and covers how to start and run a successful small enterprise, market and advertise it, balance the books and ensure it is profitable.
Once the first week is complete, they take part in a two-week practical glass cutting course.
This involves turning a regular beer bottle into a beautifully hand-crafted drinking glass.
“The students had to source their own bottles to cut for the practical component of the course,” said HACT’s marketing and fundraising manager, Claire Hodgkinson.
“They sourced the bottles from local shebeens and restaurants and a few of them already have orders for their completed drinking glasses!”
“We are really excited about this pilot project as while HACT runs a lot of successful economic empowerment projects, this is the first time we are actively targeting local, unemployed youth who are sitting at home getting depressed and disillusioned by the lack of job opportunities,” said Claire.
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Once the training is complete, the students will have 60 ready-made drinking glasses and will be encouraged to go back into their community and sell their goods or hire them out for functions.
“Time and time again we hear the problem that there are young people sitting at home after they’ve finished school and it is these young people we are wanting to create hope for through our Impilo Entsha project.
“We, as HACT, want to play a part in breaking the cycle of poverty as we know that a lot of our beaders are older women who are their families’ sole breadwinners.
“With this project, we can start helping the younger generation to shoulder some of that financial responsibility and give them a sense of pride and dignity in the process too,” said Claire.
There are already another 15 students signed up to take part in the second run of the project, which has been funded by the Sage Foundation, the CSI arm of Sage VIP Payroll.
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