Paving project improves accessibility at community youth centre
“When our Youth Centre approached Algoa Brick for assistance with our inaccessible and muddy entrance path, we hoped for no more than a donation of broken bricks,” explains Dr Marietjie van der Merwe, Director of Khayalethu Youth Centre.
“We never imagined such a generous response. They not only sponsored bricks, but also paid for a professional bricklayer to put down the paving. ”
Khayalethu Youth Centre in Theescombe Port Elizabeth provides intervention programmes and alternative care for street children, specifically boys, between the ages of 8 and 18; meeting their basic needs through a holistic and developmental approach with the ultimate aim of re-socialisation and family re-unification.
Khayalethu means “our home” and that is precisely what the Centre strives to provide for the up to 35 former street boys aged between 6 and 21 who live at the Centre. The organisation moved to its current premises five years ago, and has steadily worked to upgrade security, sanitation, classrooms and sports facilities.
“People who visit the centre are astonished at how nice it all looks. So much has been upgraded at Khayalethu, and we will be grateful forever,” Dr van der Merwe concludes. “We are so proud of our children’s home!”
