By Rachel Mohamed
A community activist and founder of the non-profit organization Guardians of the National Treasure (GNT) Ralph Bouwers has made it his mission to address some of the social ills that adversely affect the youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially children in the Lavender Hill area.
The organization’s main role is to support the local youth by providing underprivileged children and families with essential services such as food, education, clothing, and sports activities.
After spending 13 years in the UK working as an optometrist Bowers decided to return to SA in 2017 to start a youth development program for young people to have a love of sports.
He says the reason behind the formation of the organization was to empower and upskill the youth and assist the community.
Speaking on VOC Breakfast on Tuesday, the founder said “In 2017 after my visit back to Lavender Hill the community completely collapsed and was impoverished, and the number of socio-economic issues that happened in Lavender Hill was shocking. And decided as a young optometrist in the UK to come home and pay it forward. The GNT existed to assist and uplift the community”.
Bouwers painted a grim picture of the socio-economic conditions in the area that were seen as the contributing factors to the forced removals in the Cape Flats accompanied by poverty, hunger, and limited resources to the community at large.
“It is my opinion that the biggest contributor to the bad state of living conditions of the communities in the Cape Flats is from the early 60s to the 80s of forced removals. The challenges stem from poverty, limited resources, and saturated houses of 13 and 14 people living in two-bedroom houses.”
He further explains the focus of the organization was to take the children away from substance abuse and re-introduce them to the love of sports such as netball and soccer by offering them the equipment.
“We embarked on GNT to sustain the youth and we decided to look at pulling the kids from this bad state to focus on the passion that drives the youth in two sports components netball and soccer.
“We spoke to our youth saying come this way we will offer you sports equipment and resources because it’s the broader aspect of bettering their lives. We had tons of youth coming to the table and we pushed forward to establish the sport as a driver and vehicle to get kids away from drugs, substance abuse, and social ills”.
He referred to areas such as Lavender Hill, Parkwood, and Delft where the children join gangsterism and end up using drugs because he feels that the government has failed them.
“This is very complex you have Lavender Hill, Parkwood, Hanover Park, and Delft they are without resources and facilities and there are a lot of opportunities in the communities but the previous government did not look into creating activities for them but lack opportunities. Investigate why are the kids on the streets, why are they becoming gangsters and what alternatives can we offer them because the previous government leadership has failed them so let’s lend them a hand and assist them”.
“We started a ballet class with the girls who took part in it, the ballet was done under a zinc plate and horrible landscapes, but the ballet, rugby, and support groups died because the government did not assist the community and asked what assistance we could give you because the facilities were locked with no access to it”.
“And our kids are outside these gated locked facilities with girls exposed to teenage pregnancies, gangs, drug lords, and social economic issues, and tomorrow when they at 19 with a gun and go to prison no one comes out and say take this kid to a program. When they are at a crossroads at 12 to 14 years of age needing help and no one in the leadership says take this girl or boy to the Football Langa FC and take these kids to the rugby but we are failing our children miserably”.
Bouwers believes that the organization is now “spiritually mature and has offered these youth programs over the last five years with the help and sponsors such as Hirsch, Food Forward SA, and SA Harvest.
He posed a question to the public saying they must start asking questions about where is the support for these kids.
“What happened to the ballet in Lavender Hill was because there was no support for these girls who will become our young women and might end up facing the scourge of gender-based violence, and domestic abuse. After all, it starts right there by helping a little Mandy being part of a ballet class and not with gang element smoking drugs and sitting on a stoep hungry”.
We want the leadership to come speak to the children, he concluded.
VOC News
Photo: Ralph Bouwers/Facebook
