Island style fundraiser for youth skills
Pastor Gomes is calling for any retired or working tradesmen, teachers and industry professionals who would want to give of their time to share their skillset with the youth.
Souls Outreach Lighthouse Fellowship of Ifafa Beach hosted an island style fundraising event last summer for a much needed initiative – the first of its kind for the community. Like many areas on the South Coast, there is a concerning number of youth in Ifafa Beach who experience a lack of education due to financial constraints and a lack of opportunities, which only aids and abets the poverty cycle.
For those who are able to attend school, there is little to no opportunity for them to earn a living for themselves in their beautiful hometown and surrounding towns.
The pastor of Souls Outreach Lighthouse Fellowship, Emmanuel Gomes, felt strongly led by God to start a youth skills development programme to help combat this issue.
The vision is for local industry professionals and tradesmen to equip and prepare the youth for the workplace through the provision of in-classroom skills programmes and training.
The fundraising event was well supported by the community and surrounding areas.
It offered a variety of stalls, a donated jumping castle and water slide, horse and pony rides, an additional jumping castle from a member of the community, an island style photo booth and live music, which featured local musicians from Ifafa Beach, Durban and members of the South Coast Recovery Centre in Margate.
Together with the funds raised through the fundraiser, a church in the UK has donated to the programme.
The proceeds have helped the church to start prepping the land and will go towards purchasing some of the materials for the initial set up of the skills development programme.
With so much progress in such a short amount of time, there is great confidence and excitement that the vision will come into fruition for the year of 2023.
However, there is still a need for equipment and other running costs and so Pastor Emmanuel Gomes is appealing to the public and any potential investors for financial donations or referrals.
He is also calling for any retired or working tradesmen, teachers and industry professionals who would want to give of their time to share their skillset with the youth. He said immediate priorities included 6 5000-litre water tanks/JoJos, 12m metal containers that will serve as storage for equipment, metal tables and welding machines. Contact Pastor Gomes on 071 9074333 or Sasha Rensburg on 074 2226488 for more info.
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