Three ex-students of the Westbury Youth Centre, currently part of the Learning and Entrepeurship Programme, play an unexpected role in the Philips move out of Westbury. Royston Le Bon says, “The gist of the endeavour is that we were given the go ahead to collect all their [Philips] white paper, pallet wrap and recyclable materials and that is bolstering up our company – Keep it Sharp. We do cleaning and recycling.”
Le Bon continued, “Our aim is to clean the community and our environment but we want to go global, want to beautify and clean the environment. We will start by cleaning up in general. Want to employ youth in the community and designate areas that they will be responsible for – maintaining and sustaining it. We are thinking of the long term.” Latiamore Williams added, “We want to kill two birds with one stone. We want to clean and recycle.”
Centre manager Reggie Botha makes the point that this is another example of the community rising and saying, “The place is filthy. What are we doing about it?” He is emphatic that this is the sort of endeavour that the centre supports. He continued, “All the youth needs is purpose and direction and guidance for their ‘crazy’ dreams.”
They were able to get seed funding from Mash Up, which they will pay back over a five-year period. The bright orange wheelie-bins will be left in designated areas for recycling and they will be labelled according to the different materials for which they are designated. Of the 47 students on the programme, Le Bon, Williams and Owen Ragebult have gone all the way in terms of acquiring the necessary funding for their business and the mentorship they need.
They are in the process of getting the business online – they have a Facebook page as well as a website, both of which are being finalised.
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