Boxing clever when it comes to job creation

IT’S THE month and the weekend when we celebrate and honour the youth of South Africa.

We’ve seen the news and the rolling coverage of disgruntled and protesting young South Africans. Unemployment is at an all-time high. Millions of people are either battling to get into tertiary education or are finishing their studies and finding there aren’t any jobs for them. More than 50% of graduates are still without work.

While government spends most of its time e-mailing the Guptas, the problem on the ground is getting worse.

But there are some things going on in Durban that do not make the news, but that give me hope for the future.

The first is a project where I came on board at the eleventh hour as director and editor, capturing the story of a famous legacy foundation and its work with a global call centre based here in 031, but more specifically, their incubator – a programme that takes up to 400 unemployed youth a month and trains them, free – for positions within the industry.

With tens of thousands already trained and working, this incubator programme, called Career Box, aims to have helped trained and placed 100 000 unemployed youth in jobs by 2020.

I spent time with a camera crew at both the call centre and Career Box, listening to stories of the real struggle to find work. The harsh reality that in this day and age people are still going to bed hungry, going to school hungry, is a shame that hangs over all of our heads.

It makes me sick to the stomach to read of trillion-rand nuclear deals when there are still millions of people who cannot afford to eat, who just want to work. But that’s another story.

This story is about the sheer and utter delight that these youngsters experience when somebody finally says to them, “we can help you”.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as the cameras rolled and young men and women told their stories of hardship, and how their lives had been dramatically changed now that they finally were earning a living.

These were people, some of them with university degrees, who had been pounding the pavement – sometimes for years – CV in hand, looking for any kind of work, while siblings and parents sat at home, waiting for them to get a job so that they could pay their bills.

The new struggle in South Africa is not a political one. It is a struggle for survival. Every single day.

The difference in energy between those who were queuing outside, just for an interview, and those who had been through the programme and were now employed, was incredible.

When suddenly there is hope, and income, everything changes. People stood tall, shoulders back, head held high. It is the true essence of the word that is thrown around almost meaninglessly these days – empowerment.

If you look around you, it is happening everywhere. Private companies, philanthropists and organisations are doing what they can to make South Africa better. One person at a time. One job at a time.

There is another story you should know too, where a bunch of youngsters in the city are doing incredible things.

At Durban Youth Radio, now called DYR105.1FM, a small but dedicated group of people are working free, as DYR is a community station and an NGO. It belongs to Durban.

The station is staffed, mostly, by committed and passionate youth. Every day, student journalists are working feverishly to compile Durban-centric news bulletins, and young presenters are telling the story of our city, through music and interviews with people who are doing great things in the 031.

There are a couple of old-timers like myself with experience in radio and other media who are helping them to grow, but mostly they are all doing it themselves, learning, developing skills that will propel them into careers in the industry.

Every day in June, to mark Youth Day and Youth Month, DYR is telling the stories of youngsters doing inspirational things, but it is the team itself, and the team behind the scenes at initiatives like Career Box, that I would like to salute during this month where we celebrate our youth.

Your work gives hope in otherwise dark times and restores my faith in the exciting possibilities that lie ahead for South Africa.