MOSSEL BAY NEWS - "Your name is your legacy, Only you can decide how far you are going to take your own name. Who knows, maybe the next premier of the Western Cape is sitting here among us tonight."

With these words, Bronwick Benjamin opened the floor at the indoor sports centre, where the first Youth Safe Space, facilitated by the Mossel Bay Municipality's Youth Desk, was hosted on Friday night.

This initiative aims at creating a safe space for the youth where they can learn, play and develop into a healthy new generation. The target group for these gatherings is not only school-going youth, but also unemployed youth.

Representatives of Cansa warned against the dangers of smoking, especially the more socially acceptable hookah pipe, also known as the hubbly bubbly. Sergeant Jansen from the Da Gamaskop police spoke on substance abuse. The local neighbourhood watch saw to it that the youths arrived home safely, thanks to the Da Gamaskop police sponsoring transport.

A youth group from Gauteng, Abundant Life, performed an insightful drama on choices and Nameka Nomthandazo from PetroSA shared information regarding the shutdown period and encouraged the youth to be especially vigilant during this period.

The Youth Safe Spaces programme will be hosted once a month initially, focusing on various areas in the greater Mossel Bay area. In time, the aim is to run an event on a monthly basis in concurrent areas.

The next events are as follows: D'Almeida - 22 September; Great Brak River - 27 October; Brandwag - 17 November; Sonskynvallei - 8 December.

Yolande van Aswegen (second from right), the youth co-ordinator at the Mossel Bay Municipality, with rappers Beat Kings, the winners of Mossel Bay's Got Talent 2017 and other youngsters at the first Youth Safe Space event.

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