Monday, August 29, 2011
We finally have our Youth center
On august 1st 2011, the doors of the Youth Release
youth center were finally opened. It was a long road but finally after lots of
hard work and determination we got there, and now our dream of providing much
needed services to the children who need it most, is being realized.
All the money that has been raised will be used for
the running of the programs at the center. These include, skilled training,
tutorial class support, health awareness groups, circus groups, a library as
well as life skills training, psychosocial counseling and recreational
activities. In addition to this we will be offering a child sponsorship program
at the centre to the most disadvantaged youth as well as an Orphaned or
Vulnerable Children (OVC) training program for street kids who have not afforded
the luxury of full-time education. The amount of kids that can be sponsored is
dependent on the amount of donors. The cost will be 230 euro per annum.
The area we are working in has the highest ratio of
Orphaned or Vulnerable Children in Dire Dawa. There are just under 4,000
registered OVC's, that doesn't include the number of street children, or
migrating children. There is likely to be a greater influx of children coming
from neighboring Somalia as well as rural areas where the food crisis is
prevalent. Needless to say, the children certainly need our support, and we are
finally able to get somewhere with what we set out to do.We are starting small with the number of children
being supported at 200 but we hope to expand our services and programs in the
coming year and also help more children.
www.youthrelease.com
We have taken over an old leprosy clinic that is
located in Gende Tesfa community or in English the village of hope. This
building is in great condition and has huge potential. There are six big rooms
that will be used for classrooms, an office, play areas, and places for the
children to relax, and lots of space outside for the children to be able to run
around and have some fun.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank
everyone who has supported this project from day one and for supporting us to
keep believing it would happen. To be honest I think we are all still a bit in
shock that it’s real :)
We still have a long way to go, and there is still
a lot of work that needs to be done, but for now we have our building, children
are benefiting from our programs, I think we’ve done what we’ve set out to do,
from here on in, it can only get better, thank you all for making it
possible!
No comments:
Post a Comment