Imagine a place where you can apply for your ID, open an email account, type a letter, get an Aids test, play outdoor games, meet other young people, and generally get encouragement to feel good about yourself. That place is the Grahamstown Station, where the loveLife train has been on a week-long mission to change the lives of the city's youth.
Imagine a place where you can apply for your ID, open an email account, type a letter, get an Aids test, play outdoor games, meet other young people, and generally get encouragement to feel good about yourself. That place is the Grahamstown Station, where the loveLife train has been on a week-long mission to change the lives of the city's youth.
Grahamstown is the loveLife train's last stop in the Eastern Cape, and children and teenagers have until tomorrow to make the most of the workshops which have been taking place there daily.
The six-coach train, festive in shocking pink, rolled into town just after lunch on Sunday afternoon. Its nine-member crew comprises a manager, a co-ordinator, two programme leaders, a cyberwise groundbreaker, a radio groundbreaker, a general assistant and two security officers, who also take care of the maintenance work.
Local loveLife volunteers step on board at each stop to help facilitate the workshops, which aim to empower young people with life skills, and inspire them with motivational talks. The train has visited centres in other provinces across the country.
When Grocott's Mail visited the loveTrain on Tuesday morning, 17 children were sitting in rows inside a carriage, taking part in Loving Life – a motivational programme that encourages young people to be innovators and to "go out there and make a difference", said Modibedi Mokoena, one of the facilitators.
The programme also looks at personal values, and life in general. “We teach young people to set goals and to go out there and make sure that they achieve them,” said Mokoena. Also on the programme is the Healthy Sexuality workshop, which teaches young people about puberty, HIV/Aids and teenage pregnancy.
Then comes Cyberwise training, where participants are taught basic computer skills – from how to switch on a terminal to creating your own email account. At the end of the day's workshops, participants get Life Skills certificates. But that's not all – there's outdoor fun to be had as well.
“Wherever we go, we always look for an open space near the train station where young people can take part in five-a-side soccer, frisbee and basketball or netball,” said Mokoena.
Even officialdom comes to the party and on Service-delivery Friday, government departments and agencies such as health, social development, labour, correctional services, the South African Social Security Agency and the National Youth Development Agency get a chance to show young people what they have to offer them.
"People can go to their stalls and apply for IDs or social grants, or get free HIV/Aids counselling and testing," said loveTrain national manager, Nkagare Makhudu.
The programme ran out of steam – well, diesel actually – on Wednesday. The generators stopped and the diesel-powered Cyberwise classes came to a temporary halt – but after they bought 3 000 litres in the afternoon, the programme rolled on. The loveTrain will leave Grahamstown tomorrow.
Next stop will be Vredendaal, in the Western Cape.
