Villa Liza youth development forum in collaboration with local churches hosted an event at Christ Through All Gospel Outreach Church in Villa Liza under the banner of celebrating human rights day. The event was hosted to provide solutions for the issues which are affecting the local youth that also prevent them from abusing their rights.
Muzi Mhlotshwa, chairperson of the forum reaffirmed the need to strengthen unity among people in the Villa Liza area, he amplified the voice of the youth as he influenced key stake holders to intervene in resolving the human rights abuse crisis in the township.
He also informed the attendees, on how does education and the socio-economic environment impact the human rights.Muzi Mlotshwa said this while speaking to the media “We don’t have a Youth Centre here, we don’t have a Library, we don’t have even a Community Hall for us to meet that’s why we are working hand in hand with Churches so that they can assist with venues whenever possible for us to host our events and meetings. Libraries were going to help school pupils with information because they do their work at home, sometimes it’s hard to study, in some cases both parents are drunk and students have deadlines to submit their assignments.”
Another youthful individual identified as Nelly said “I joined the Forum two months ago and I saw a lot of people’s lives being transformed by it.”
Though the forum is working hard on transforming the lives of many people in the township, it has also managed to facilitate the path of more than forty students to further their studies at Tertiary level, although some churches still take them for granted. the event was advertised to be hosted at Apostolic Faith Mission church but it was later hosted at the CTA church’s premises and this affected the turnout of the event.
When reached for comment, the 21-year-old spokesperson Ross Shabalala raised a concern that young people are not taking such programs seriously, they only focus on abusing alcohol and drugs. “I’m sure this is the reason we had an insignificant turnout but it’s not bad we appreciate those who were present.”
“I think its all our fault for them to turn us down on the last minute,” Said the soft spoken and down to earth Muzi Mlothswa. “We thank those who sponsored our event though it was on short notice, they bailed us out after we were turned down by those who promised to assist us.”
“We are more than ready to contribute to the development of our community especially investing in our youths. We are going to help them with a place to operate without frustrations,” Said one local preacher (Pastor K of Pinnacle Life Church) running humanitarian projects in most parts of Villa Liza, feeding nearly thousand children every week and currently building a classroom in one of the local pre-schools.
