Resilience in the aftermath of Covid-19

CIVIL society organisations are working to uplift youth who have come forward to state their preparedness to change gear from focusing on Covid19, to expanding their initiatives in favour of young people.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a nationwide lockdown, many youth-orientated organisations put their initiatives on hold, with some diverting their funds to provide temporary Covid-19 relief.

However, with the easing of lockdown restrictions, organisations are looking to up-skill young people by using different mediums of resources.

The South African Youth Council’s Benjamin Zantsi said that it has done its best to assist the youth during the most tense months of the pandemic: “We intend to not only focus on the negative instances but to improve on our programmes and initiatives that we have designed to up-skill and further develop young people.

“We are in the process of creating good and lucrative partnerships that will continue to drive forward our mandate.”

He was echoed by Patricia De Lora of Siyakwazi Youth Network and Partners in Sexual Health, who said both the organisations she belonged to had been operating throughout lockdown regardless of its challenges.

“During lockdown we were worried about what the pandemic meant for young people’s access, to SRHR services. They missed clinic appointments, mental anxiety and other issues,”said De Lora.

Human rights advocate Avuzwa-Kagiso Ngubo added: “The pandemic revealed a lot of inequalities, with parents in most cases depending on alcohol to cope with stress, unemployment and having to teach their kids at home.”