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Click here to go to the Dutch version of this page
The Salesian Institute on the corner of Somerset Road and Chiappini Street in Cape Town was built in 1910, a decade or so after the Salesians first established themselves in South Africa. Over the years it served as an orphanage, later as a technical school and it now accommodates a range of projects for youth at risk.
The projects are managed by a Board of Directors consisting of both Salesians who live on the premises as well as professionals from the corporate sector.
Click here to view the Financial Statements for these projects in 2008.
Contact Details |
Street address: Salesian Institute, 2 Somerset Road, Cape Town, South Africa, 8001
Postal address: P O Box 870 Cape Town 8000
NPO Number: NPO 003-313
Tel:+27 21 425 1450 |
Donations |
Click here to donate
The Youth Employment Skills (YES) Project welcomes the donation of used computers in working order for the students to practice on. Students have the opportunity to buy a computer which they had put together themselves upon completion of their course. |
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Learn to live
Learn to live Educational Programme for street children has been recognized as an independent school by the Western Cape Educational Department. Between 40 and 90 children of school going age arrive each day from the various shelters in and around Cape Town or directly off the street. Some also come from various communities where they have dropped out of school. There are six classes – 3 Xhosa speaking and 3 Afrikaans speaking. Breakfast for the strollers and lunch for all, are provided. Activities include soccer, swimming, music, dancing, art and drama. Life skills form an integral part of the curriculum. The ethos is one of acceptance and development.
There is also a technical skills training workshops where male and female youth over the age of 16 are taught basic skills in welding, wood and leather craft as well as panel beating. Items are sold through craft markets. Over the past three years we have managed to help establish partnerships with construction and engineering firms that are willing to employ our youth. An average of 40 youth attend daily.
The children attending Learn to Live manage to join mainstream schooling again, once they have been placed into a more stable home environment. For the others we have functional numeracy and literacy classes.
Who we are |
Learn to Live Co-ordinator: Christie Fritz |
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Don Bosco Hostel
Older youth (between the ages of 16 and 24 years) and more motivated street youth may opt to join an 18 month occupational, educational and life skills programme aimed at preparing them for life as responsible citizens and as part of mainstream society.
More than 135 youth have participated in this programme since 1998. About ninety of them have managed to find employment and have a place to stay.
In addition to those volunteering to join the Hostel programme, young men are also referred to us by the Courts, Police, Social Workers or Shelters. They are referred to as emergency” cases and do not necessarily stay for the full programme. Many of them arrive in Cape Town from other areas and are helped to compile CVs and find employment. We have accommodated about 140 youth since 1998.
| Who we are |
Co-ordinator of the Bosco Hostel: Fr Alberto |
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16+ Outreach Project
This is an often heroic street initiative which aims to build relationships with the youth on the street. The Outreach Worker becomes a stable person in a dangerous world of survival of the fittest, someone the youth can confide in, offering an alternative to the rather anti-social lifestyle on the streets.
On average our Outreach Worker sees between 350 and 400 youth a month.
| Who we are |
16+ Outreach Co-ordinator: Lesley Booysen and Agnes Pass |
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Youth Employment Skills (YES)
The YES project forms part of the Salesian Institute Youth Projects in Cape Town. It was launched in 2002 with a matching grant from the USAID. We achieved our goal of having 200 Salesian trained young women placed in jobs, in May 2006.
The aim of the YES project is to facilitate the skills acquisition of young unemployed school leavers so that they can enter the job market. We focus on four hard skills:
- Computer Literacy and Office Management
- Computer Maintenance and Upgrade
- Bricklaying
- Tiling and Mosaic
All training courses start with Life Skills training, which has proved extremely valuable to students. These include awareness raising of various issues impacting on the lives of youth, such as gender, environment, HIV and Aids and human rights. We also facilitate training in communication and the development of personal goals, CV writing and interview skills.
The training courses are two months long and cost R100.00. (Bricklaying is free of charge.) We offer five courses during the year, with recruitment taking place on an ongoing basis. Students receive a certificate at the end of every course. Many students proceed to the Computer Maintenance course upon completion of the Computer Literacy course.
The YES project employs the services of a fulltime Job Placement officer who communicates with the business sector regarding potential job opportunities. We have a good placement record of 60% of our students.
Tel: +27 021 421 3450
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Employment stats for 2007
5 courses completed each for Computer Literacy and Office Management, Computer Maintenance and Repair, Tiling and bricklaying.
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Females Trained 2007 |
Males Trained 2007 |
Females Employed 2007 |
Males Employed 2007 |
Total Trained |
Total Employed |
| TOTAL |
134 |
99 |
124 |
107 |
233 |
231 |
The total employed for 2007 includes some students trained in 2006 but employed in 2007.
Success stories
We had many success stories but two stand out as remarkable given these learners backgrounds.
Maxwell
Maxwell lived under a bridge before joining our bricklaying course. He stayed in one of the shelters in the ity while he attended the course, was on time and never missed a day. He showed dedication and commitment to his work which resulted in him being placed with an electrical company in Cape Town. He showed the same dedication and commitment to this company as he did to the course with the result that he is now going to do an apprenticeship with this organization. He had the courage to turn his life right around, well done Maxwell.
Siyabonga
Siyabonga lived on the street for 9 months before turning his life around. He is a very determined and ocused young man today, successful in his job as a fireman. He attributes much of his success to firstly the 3 week life skills sessions he attended and secondly to the actual hard skills he acquired. He completed the Computer Literacy and Office Management and Computer Maintenance and Repair courses. While living in the shelter he was able to repair computers as an income and even repaired the office computers in the shelter. They were so impressed with his ability they gave him an old computer to fix and to keep. He was chosen as one the 50 or so successful candidates from over 350 applicants for firefighters for the City of Cape Town.
2008
We have had a very good response for the first courses of the year. We targeted schools in disadvantaged areas last year and as a result the students who matriculated last year are now attending the computer courses. We will continue to advertise in community centres, churches, libraries, clinics, schools and local newspapers. |
| Who we are |
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- Alison Appleton- Co-ordinator
- Edgar Lennitch – Life skills Facilitator and Computer Literacy Facilitator
- Mylton Saaiman - Computer Maintenance and Upgrade Facilitator
- Henry Robinson – Tiling and Mosaic Facilitator
- Xabangai Magwenzi – Bricklaying Facilitator
- Sharon Reagon – Job Placement Officer
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Personal
Experiences |
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| Nosibusiso Njaba, 22 years, student of the Computer Literacy course (October 2006) |
Nosibusiso lives in Mitchell’s Plain with her unemployed parents, one brother and four sisters. Besides attending the Computer Literacy course she works in a printer shop at night. She had not work with a computer before. Her parents are very happy that she joined the programme.
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Why do you think this programme necessary? “Because you get more experience, more knowledge about computer. And the majority have no money to learn computer skills. So this programme is a very good opportunity.”
What would be your favourite job after the lessons? What kind of profession would you like to be in future? “I would like to be a social worker in future.”
Are you optimistic to get a job after the course? “Yes, I’m quite optimistic. And if I don’t get a job as a social worker, I would take any job. And I need to find better ones than my actual job. A secretary job would be perfect.”
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| Gasnoedien Wallace, 23 years, student of the Computer Literacy course (Octr 2006) |
Before Gasnoedien joined the course he was unemployed for two months because his former contract was finished. His previous jobs were electrician, driver and doing plumbing. He lives in Bishop Lavis. |
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Why do you think is this programme necessary? “It is necessary because of our corporate world. If you want to work in an office you definitely going to need computer knowledge.”
Have you worked with a computer before? “Yes, but I did not know a lot. In the YES course I’m learning all the basic stuff like word and excel. Everything makes fun except excel. That is the most difficult thing.”
Would you recommend YES? “Yes, definitely to all my friends. Five of my friends are coming for the next class.”
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What will you do after this course? “Maybe I will do another course (computer maintenance). And after that I will apply for a job.”
If you could make the situation in South Africa better, what would you do? “I would start at the poverty. That is the main problem in SA. Then create jobs. Also more officers are needed to control the situations in violence.” |
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| Xolisa Sani, 19 years, student of the Home Maintenance course (Oct 2006) |
Xolisa lives with his mother in Khayelitsha. After he got his matric he was unemployed for six months. Then he decided to join the YES Programme.
How had you heard about the programme? “My neighbour did the Computer Literacy course and told me about it. I was sitting at home and hanging around because I found no job after my matric. Then I applied for the Home Maintenance course. I thought it would be more exciting than a computer course. I’m more interested in practical work. I love to work with my hands.”
Why do you think this programme is necessary? “I think it is necessary to know how to flick doors or do plumbing. The course helps you to become a handyman in your house.” |
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In which topic are you interested especially? “I’m mostly interested in carpentry. My favourite job is working in a furniture job. I love working with wood and put it in different styles like windows or frames.”
What is your experience with the programme so far? “I think I can do that job because I’ve learned a lot so far. We had theoretical and practical lessons. I already know how to cut wood and built types of doors.” |
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| Daleen Dreyer, former student of the Computer Literacy / Office Management course |
Before Daleen joined the course at the end of 2003, she hadn’t work with a computer. Her cousin did the course before her and told her about it. After the course she got a job in the cash office at Checkers. Next year she wants to study nursing. Daleen is 29 years old and lives in Delft.
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What was your experience with the programme? “More than I thought it would be. It exceeded my expectations, especially the life skills course. It did very much for me. It did more than help to get a job with the computer course. It also changed my personality, my whole life. Before I had low self-esteem, I could believe that I ever will find a job. I didn’t know how to work with people, how to communicate to the people in a job. And I didn’t know how to do an interview or to write a CV. I didn’t know much about stress-management and how to work on a computer. Actually I learned quite a lot.”
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What was your personal highlight? “My highlight was the friendships in the course. I never had really friends. But in this course I made a lot of friends. Before we did the computer course we did a camp in Koggel Bay. It was more than learning life skills. I learned a lot about team building or to trust other people. It made me a stronger person as I discovered how to work with people and how to work in a team. We are still friends. We phone often and go out. It’s very nice.”
Do you have a job now? “No. Not at the moment. After the course I got a job at Checkers in the cash office for eight months. But then I quit it because of the transport problem. There was no public transport and it was always difficult to get home. But next year I will study nursing. My favourite job is nursing. I really want to do that. And for that you also can use what you’ve learned through the YES programme.”
How often did you apply for a job? “Too many times I can’t remember. But the YES staff helped me. Most of the applications were through the Salesian Projects Office.”
Do you have more opportunities now compared to what you had before? “Yes. Because whenever you apply for a job you will be asked if you can work with a computer or if you know how to work with people or how to handle stress. Everything that you’ve learned in the course it really works through.”
Would you recommend the YES programme? “Definitely! I would recommend it to everybody. It doesn’t just help you with job-seeking. It also changes you as a person. It gives you self-confidence. You learn more about yourself. It teaches you more life skills. It makes you a stronger person. When you go into the course and then when you leave it – you will definitely be a stronger person.” |
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