KNYSNA NEWS - Options Care Centre forms part of the Youth for Christ (YFC) ministry in Knysna and mainly creates a safe place where men and women facing crises make informed personal decisions.
As we all know, South African youth are in crisis. According to a profile of youth survey, unemployment among those in the 15 to 35 age group increased from 34.5% in 2009 to 35.9% in 2014.
The reasons are multiple: fatherlessness, family breakdown, lack of both high school and tertiary education, unplanned pregnancies, HIV/Aids, systemic poverty and substance abuse all are contributing factors.
More than 71% of the unemployed in South Africa fall into this age group and are referred to as a “ticking time bomb” because there are so many of them, and they create instability for the whole country due to hunger, violence, crime and hopelessness.
These concerns have weighed heavily on the hearts of the YFC staff and volunteers in Knysna and they have interacted with youth through life skills interventions, mainly in schools and counselling programmes of Options Care Centre and the families of the children in our youth clubs and school projects.
Options’ counselling and ongoing programmes address many of the issues related to the crisis.
What do we do?
• Counsel pregnant mothers, rape victims, abused and HIV-positive women.• Create awareness through local clinics that a support structure exists in Knysna.
• Offer support groups for pregnant and/or single moms and teenagers.
• Basic counselling training for those wishing to volunteer and assist YFC’s counselling team.
• Sexual Integrity courses for teens.
• Various preventative talks at schools.
• Family Matters’ Programme, in partnership with the Department of Social Development. This is all about the caring and supporting of families in the broader Knysna community. A hundred families per year are targeted and this involves home visits, parenting workshops, fatherhood workshops, recreational activities for the children – all to strengthen and improve family ties where any form of dysfunction exists.
• Counselling and workshops in the Knysna Prison mainly focusing on fatherhood.
Contact Ghila Daniels at 076-916-5636 for further information, or visit the offices on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 09:00 and 16:00 at the corner of Market and Queen streets opposite the rear entrance of Allsound Security.
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