About Us

Our Goal :       Encourage and empower
                        Diepsloot  High School Students
    
Our Tools:      Student Christian Meetings
                        Personal Counseling
                        Outreach
                        Assemblies
                        Holiday Retreats and Meetings
                        Teachers Meetings
                        Physical Aid for Schools, Equipment etc
                        Facilitation of Bursaries for Further Education

        YouthReachSA  was launched in 2009 when Simon Bennett  and Phoebe Barker, started hosting  Student Christian Meetings, or SCMs, at Diepsloot Combined High School.
Realizing the real impact the meetings and subsequent counselling were having in these teenagers’ lives, a team of dedicated passionate professionals has come together  to consolidate and develop this valuable and exciting  work throughout every single High School in Diepsloot.
From 8th Grade through to Graduation, our volunteers spend their week hosting student Christian Meetings, spending time with the teens, getting to know them, and counseling them through their many problems.
Growing up in Diepsloot presents many physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges to teenagers. Many of them lose focus and become discouraged to the point of leaving school and despairing of life itself.
We encourage the students to fight to finish their school, reach beyond their difficult  circumstances  and have the motivation  and determination to expand their horizons and dream beyond what they can see possible.
One result of this is that a former learner at the Combined School and SCM leader, Jeoffrey Hlongo has set up a foundation Live Your Dream Africa with our help. LYDA provides Saturday afternoon activities for teenagers in Diepsloot with motivational speakers along with drama, poetry, dance and choral workshops.
At present YouthReach runs Student Christian Meetings in five Diepsloot High Schools.

Who we are:

             Simon Bennett- Founder
            Phoebe Barker- Co. Founder / Life Coach
            Angelita Silva– Volunteer / Accredited Counselor
            David Silva– Volunteer
            John Traas- Volulunteer      
                                             


Facts about Diepsloot:

Diepsloot is a densely populated settlement in the north of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is made up of government-subsidized housing, brick houses built by landowners as well as shacks. These shacks are built on any piece of land with nothing already on it. Some landowners charge rent to others to stay in a shack on their land

Diepsloot is now home to about 150,000 people; many of them live in shacks 3 m by 2 m assembled from scrap metal, wood, plastic and cardboard. Some families lack access to basic services such as running water, sewage and rubbish removal.

Residents use paraffin stoves and coal for cooking, and candles for light. Some shacks have electricity and use a prepaid meter, but this is becoming increasingly expensive and is used sparingly. City officials estimate that half the population in the settlement is unemployed.

                                        

                             













                         

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