Youth unemployment is rife in South Africa; 7.9 million people are jobless.

With a 52% poverty rate, African women have a disproportionately high rate of unemployment. At all ages, women have greater unemployment rates than men do, but this is especially true for young people (16 to 24 years old), where the rates are 54% for young women and 45% for young men.

Focus on the Family Africa piloted a Programme at the end of 2019, which saw three unemployed youth commence at Focus on the Family.

We are immensely proud of the programme as we have been able to give back to the very communities in which we conduct our other programmes in by employing youth from there. The youth get to provide income for their families and change the cycle of poverty from which many of them come.

One youth in particular mentioned his joy in being able to provide school uniforms for his siblings, something he had never been able to do prior to our programme.

They are provided with free mentorship as they get to spend time daily in devotional groups and in community with the other Focus staff members, learning and growing spiritually.

We currently have eight youth in our employment programme. Most of them have inspiring personal stories, and it is such a joy to partner with Jesus in seeing them discover their own unique gifts, deepen their relationship with Jesus, and understand for themselves God’s design for family and relationships. You will get an opportunity to see these youth facilitating our youth programmes in schools, such as No Apologies and SNAPP.