Architectural plans for the Kethuphila 'Choose Life' Youth Centre, Anesa & Barbosa Architects
The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation is currently in the process of establishing a 500 square meter youth centre in Masiphumelele, providing recreation, education and sexual health services to young men and women, ages 8-24.
In Masiphumelele, a township outside of Cape Town, high-risk sexual behavior, concerns around HIV testing, lack of youth-friendly services, and feelings of vulnerability are all contributing to the rampant spread of HIV infection among youth.
We have worked extensively with the Masi community since 1999, and continues to provide HIV care, testing and research, with a particular interest in adolescents. Community representatives, both adults and youth, have expressed a strong desire to establish and maintain a youth centre in the community.
The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, with the Masiphumelele Community Advisory Board, and the adolescent Community Advisory Board, the Future Fighters, we are working together to create the Kethuphila ‘Choose Life' Youth Centre.
The Kethuphila Centre will focus on four key areas of activity: 1) sport and recreation 2) education 3) skills / employment training and 4) sexual health services to meet adolescents' basic developmental needs. These areas will be supported in the design of the building, and in the future hiring and partnering with experts from around Cape Town to share opportunities with these youth.
The goals in building the Kethuphila Centre, which will house a youth program to serve all youth in Masiphumelele, will be to build and sustain positive youth development and, more specifically, to create a safe and youth-friendly environment between the hours of 14:00 and 18:00, which includes youth health services.
Overall, the Kethuphila "Choose Life" Youth Centre will create a safe, open environment for adolescents to develop mentally and physically healthy lifestyles. Its sensitive and supportive position in the community aims to foster a generation of young people who will make healthy life choices and change the current landscape of rising HIV/AIDS rates.
The generous support of donors to the Kethuphila Youth Centre, has initiated this important work. We would like to thank the: Masiphumelele Youth Project, an association of individuals including the graduates of the University of Cape Town Medical School, class of 1975; and the Mpilo Trust.
The future of the Kethuphila Youth Centre is reliant on the support of our Friends. With generous donations, this Centre will become a place for the youth of Masiphumelele to grow together, with the knowledge and expertise of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation behind them.
For more specific information on the Youth Centre, please email lisa.aquino@hiv-research.org.za
