Arnolds, officially launched the Alexandra Safe Hub last week Tuesday, 14 September 2021.
The Alexandra Safe Hub has been designed to add value to the community it serves by providing programmes that focus on sport, health, safety, education, and employability.
The facility enables youth development in a safe environment, creates community cohesion, provides small businesses development training and essentially aims to improve the standard of living through creation of jobs and access to inclusive quality recreation and support programmes for all.
It boasts a 40-seater information technology and communication youth centre facility that also functions as a learning and enterprise centre. Programmes offered at the centre will include office space, training, e-Learning, computer counselling, workshop rooms, a youth café, as well as bathroom/changing rooms. Facilities at the hub also include an artificial turf football field and solar powered flood lights and security.
Addressing guests at the official opening, Mayor Matongo said: “The hub must be at the centre of addressing the root causes of violence and other social ills which are witnessed in this community and other communities. We can hardly exaggerate the need for the hub that gives the young people of our city a space where they feel safe.”
He said sports teaches children the values that focus on self-respect, respecting others and setting goals, and doing all you can to achieve that. “It offers our youth an opportunity to reimagine themselves and their future. Our interventions must plant a seed of hope. We must say to young people no matter how today might look, tomorrow holds a promise of something better,” he said.MMC Arnolds said that for many years sports had been an escape from dreary circumstances. Sports offered a lifeline for many youngsters from communities like Alexandra, where determination exists but opportunities are lacking.
“Investing in our youth and communities through sport remains a game changer. More so in these impoverished communities, where the harsh realities and lack of opportunities remain evident. We know what happens in these communities, we are from these communities, and we are on the ground. Every child has a dream, and their dream is to be somebody and somewhere one day, and without this they cannot go anywhere,” said.
Written by: Muhammed Essop
20/09/2021