Youth for Christ

ABOUT US

SERVICES

In George and the surrounding areas we network very widely with other caring organizations and our work with youth and youth groups include the following three main projects:

Kidstop – a project which reaches out to community street children and their families across the George area. At our drop-in centre in Borchards, children receive nutritious meals, clothes, life skills training, literacy classes, counseling, spiritual input and loving care.

Options Care Centre – reaches out to people in crisis from our centre at 122 York Street offering pregnancy and HIV testing, counseling and support. Related services include a mother/baby/emergency food pantry, an income-generating project, a Teen Parent Club, ante-natal classes, and post-abortion counseling.

You may be facing a great personal crisis because of the possibility or the awareness of an unplanned pregnancy. You don’t have to face it alone.

Options Care Centre’s passion is people and we invite you to visit our website, we hope you’ll get a feel for how we are impacting the community of George and the surrounding areas. Whether you live near or far we’d love for you to consider how you can also be involved with us in making a difference!

Peer Education – is a school-based programme focused on lifeskillls and HIV/AIDS prevention. Our team of young facilitators are active in 12 high schools in the area, encouraging learners to make wise decisions in every area of their lives.

Schools Ministry

VCTs with Parkdene Secondary

This excited group of Peer Educators went for VCTs this term at the Lawaaikamp clinic. The sister did pre-counselling with the whole group and they taught her about what they had learned in the past week’s Peer Education session. They decided to receive Voluntary Counselling and Testing to roll model to peers that it is good to be regularly tested and know your status. They are going to take what they learned and encourage others to also get tested.

Sao Bras VCTs

On 28 October 2010 the JPE’s and SPE’s decided to do VCT visibility as their school project. The VCT took place at Sao Bra Secondary High School with the help of the Alma clinic staff. The Peer Educators had information tables during break time and went class to class for lesson deliveries. They focused on encouraging their peers to do VCT. The project was a great success. Out of the 970 learners in Sao Bra Secondary High School 195 Girls and 167 Boys did the VCT.

HIV/AIDS Event at Hillcrest

1,040 learners were reached through the HIV/AIDS event. The Peer Educators did dramas, speeches and poems about HIV and AIDS. Two of the Peer Educators wrote special poems on how their lives are impacted by HIV/AIDS. The grade 11 learners wore HIV/AIDS awareness T-shirts at school to motivate their peers that together they can beat HIV and AIDS. It was an awesome event, and the teachers said that they want Peer Education to do more events at the school regarding the issues that today’s teens are facing.

York High VCT Event

11 York High PEs went to Options Care Centre to experience the VCT process for themselves. They walked into the care center with confidence in knowing what the VCT process is all about from the lessons we taught them but that fizzled out when the lead counselor told them they have to receive individual pre and post counseling. Now, remember back to high school…most things including projects at school, going shopping, even going to the bathroom (at least for girls) are handled as a group…perhaps it’s safety in numbers :) . But for VCT the students were on their own. It took a few of the girls quite a while to warm up to the fact that they couldn’t bring their best friend with them into the counseling room for moral support but in the end-they all did it by themselves! We’re so proud of them! So, all in all the York students had a GREAT visit to Options. They learned a ton and are equipped to pass on the information to their friends and peers.