Outreach wants to help north youths

A new non-profit local organisation wants to change the lives of underprivileged Mountain View communities and help them become self-sustainable.

“Our outreach makes provision for training, psychosocial support and awareness to help youths to acquire community development skills,” said Monzer Outreach founder Montseng Mohapi.

Mohapi said outreach wants to help youths who are both in and out of school.

“We also help in eradicating poverty and hunger through the promotion of nutritional awareness to the most underprivileged children and youths within our society with the community’s help.”

Beneficiaries were selected from churches and schools around Soshanguve, Hammanskraal and nearby informal settlements.

Mohapi said the outreach evolved from a small group of the local church.

“We also provide youths and young adults with short-term employment, economic self-sufficiency, behavioural and emotional health,” she said.

Mohapi said the organisation provided computer skills training and various health promotion programmes to adolescents.

“We also create awareness of HIV/Aids and develop peer-to-peer support groups,” she said.

Mohapi said they also promoted high-quality education and economic growth skills and provided sanitary towels to schools.

“The outreach strives to empower young people with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to bring a change on a local, national and international level.”

Mohapi said they focused on the most underprivileged youth residing in urban and rural areas, surviving on meagre resources, and constantly seeking out a purpose for their life.

She said their youth empowerment initiative motivated youths to lead a normal life by providing them with a platform to develop and showcase their skills.

Mohapi is a professional nurse with more than 30 years of experience.

She is also an occupational health nurse, a HIV/Aids counsellor, project manager and diabetic educator.

Mohapi said the outreach, however, faces financial challenges.

“We had difficulty in obtaining donor funding and donors unwilling to fund operational costs.

“We also face obstacles such as limited government funding for NPOs, budgeting issues, accurate budgeting issues and overreliance on donor funding.”

Mohapi said the project wants to select 100 marginalised and vulnerable groups of youths within the community to empower and develop them into productive and empowered citizens.

“We plan to work with the youths who never have been reared to become a productive generation, because petty crimes in the community are constantly on the rise.”

Mohapi said she gets help with donations from local shops, colleagues and friends.

“Not relying on individual donations, we also seek help on Facebook.

“We can’t do it on our own. Become involved – your donations will change lives forever.”

To donate, contact Monza on 072 318 3169.

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