Six Northern Cape parolees are reaping the rewards of the fourth Northern Cape Provincial Youth Camp. The six have been afforded an opportunity to be part of over 200 youths currently taking part in the camp at Vanderkloofdam resort in the Pixley ka Seme District. Their incorporation on the camp forms part of government’s efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate them back into society. The gathering has been organized by the Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and other stakeholders. The National Department of Sport and Recreation is overseeing the implementation of the programme.
The Kimberley based Fernando Visage (29) had served seven years in prison before being released on a correctional supervision. After undergoing selection and recruitment process, Visage was selected to facilitate and share some of his experiences with the 2015 Trailblazers “As a young person way back at School in Homevale in Kimberley, I got involved in a lot of negative social ills like substance abuse and gangsterism and I was still young and a bit immature so while I was in grade 11 I actually got involved in some crimes and I got sentenced to 13 years in prison”.
Visage who spoke passionately about his future says he managed to complete his matric while in prison and will soon be concluding his qualifications in Information Technology. He is a regional coordinator for Active Leadership for Public Innovation; a Kimberley based Non Governmental Organization. “I firmly believe that there’s a room in everyone’s life to change and I decided to create an opportunity for me to actually influence young people not to go into a life of crime and substance abuse hence I m youth oriented am a community oriented I work in my community I see to it that people in my community dont get involved with bigger guys with peer pressure influencing them. I work with the police I combat crime; I patrol my community 24/7.”
The 2015 Trailblazer Youth Camp is hosted under a theme “One Heart One Africa”.
The Youth Camp motto – Learn, Lead and Serve – captures the essence of its focus, which is to nurture the spirit of social cohesion and nation building. The first day at the camp was focused on leadership, life skills and values, with the second and third days dedicated to nation building and social cohesion that will help them develop into proud and patriotic leader citizens.
A number of alumni from last year’s camps are also in attendance assuming the roles of Camp Stewards.
A day during the seven-day-long programme has been set aside for community service, when Trailblazers will be visiting impoverished communities at Petrusville and Keirtjieskloof to do community work. Here the teams will be doing minor repairs to the houses of identified indigents and also roll out sporting programmes. Similar events are currently under way in other parts of the country.
