The Joza Youth Hub is celebrating its annual Open Day tomorrow (Saturday 26 May), and all the partners who make it possible are working around the clock to make this year’s event the best one yet. The event will take place in Ncame Street, next to Makana Housing Department opposite the Joza Post Office.
The Toy Library will organise game activities and open the traffic playground for younger children. The Access Music Project entertain the crowd and offer dance classes, as well as a course for parents in how children can be assisted with their homework. The Joza Reading and Chess Club will run a chess competition open to all ages; while Upstart! will repeat last year’s successful poetry and singing competition.
Awarenet will run a computer competition and a computer course for adults. All activities are free of charge and participants can win up to R100 in airtime vouchers.
The Joza Youth Hub is a metaphorical and spatial base for different non-profit organisations working with youth in Grahamstown. There is the Access Music Project (AMP), a music academy for underprivileged pupils from all over Grahamstown which strives to connect and empower young adults through music. The Joza Chess and Reading club work with younger children to improve their reading skills as well as teaching them patience and long-term planning. Upstart! is a journalism and radio project through which High School pupils get the chance to research about their local community and spread the news around the world (through occasional supplements and columns in Grocott’s Mail, newsletters as well as other platforms).
Awarenet is an IT-education programme which aims to increase computer literacy in the local community. The organisation also maintain a computer lab in the Joza Youth Hub which is open to the public and offers computer clubs and courses. Additionally, awarenet provides IT courses to teachers at local schools. The Toy library stimulates young children intellectually by lending out toys and playing games.
Rhodes University Community Engagement also has offices at the Joza Youth Hub and connects Rhodes University students with the Hub by busing up students every week in order to improve knowledge exchange in Grahamstown.
