“I learned so much, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity,” said 24-year-old Anelisa Jokiwe from Mdantsane, speaking about the Gender-Based Violence Awareness and Digital Skills Training Program run by the Buffalo City Metro in partnership with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), the Department of Social Development, and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies.
“I really enjoyed the lessons on coding. I didn’t know that coding was easy, and I had always thought laptops were just too complicated for me, but not anymore.”
She said it was an empowering experience and she could not wait to take what she had learned at the workshop and use it for the betterment of her community. Jokiwe was one of fifty young people, between the ages of 18 and 35, both males and females, as well as people with disabilities, who participated in a Youth Empowerment Workshop aimed at curbing gender-based violence in the metro.
The four-day, jam-packed program was aimed at bringing awareness about gender-based violence and providing information about avenues of support for those who are or may be facing such an issue, as well as providing Digital Skills Training. The aim was to equip young people with skills that enable them to participate in the economy and make them less prone or vulnerable to becoming stuck in cycles of abuse.
Thandolwethu Andrew Mvandaba, 25 years old, from Mdantsane, said he enjoyed the third and fourth days of the program, where digital skills were taught, the most. “We were introduced to Microsoft Office Suite, Design Thinking, Programming, and Robotics. I have always believed that one had to be a genius or overly smart to understand coding, but our facilitators simplified the big terms, and it wasn’t so daunting anymore—rather exciting,” he said.
