Bethanie youth in the ||Kharas region, who are members of the 'Begin to Imagine Initiative', continue to create opportunities for their fellows, despite challenges that have affected their youth development programmes over the years.
Speaking to NBC News, Chairperson of Begin to Imagine Jennifer Kruger said the initiative operates under the umbrella of the Career Assessment Mentorship Programme, a non-governmental organisation founded by Sidney Boois in 2015 and active until now.
It was established to help school-going learners and unemployed youth in the area access further education, training and employment opportunities through its programmes.
Kruger said they have several programmes and campaigns in the pipeline, but they not only need financial assistance but also support from their community.
"The challenges we are facing are the support in Bethanie, but with the initiative we are trying our utmost best. For the career, assessment, and mentorship programme, we need mentors to couch the youth, but we need support from the community that the youth actually wants to bring a chance in our village, and we need the council to stand with the youth."
The initiative has also hosted three successful Youth Expos; however, due to financial constraints, they have decided to put it on hold for assessment.
"We started the expo with zero balance, so we needed to learn in order to have an expo. We need to gain something back for the youth. So we decided to sit back and reflect to see what we can do differently so this year the expo didn't take place this year, but it's going to take place next year because we are planning to do a proper planning for the expo 2027."
One of the 'Begin to Imagine's' biggest achievements has been helping Bethanie's youth access further education, sponsorships and employment opportunities, and Kruger said she is among one of the beneficiaries.
In. We have a lot of results coming from these mentorships. We are training youth to be leaders of tomorrow with basic leadership skills. We have a few that are working at the Gondwana lodge, and we have a programme with them. So we are sending the youth who want to make a difference in themselves to Gondwana Lodge, so Bethanie, we are really training the youth.
Kruger said the initiative plans to run mental health and substance awareness campaigns and establish a computer classroom for artificial intelligence and coding.