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YOUTH WITH A VISION
NextAid is pleased to announce the completion of its premier sustainable development project with YWAV. The YWAV Community Center and Children’s Housing Village on a nine acre plot of land in rural Dennilton was started in July 2005 and through this four year partnership, we have completed a total of 12 earth-friendly buildings as well as numerous upgrades to the existing buildings and infrastructure.
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Youth With a Vision is a locally created and managed South African non-profit organization committed to making their community of Dennilton a more positive and safe place for youth. Dennilton is a poverty-stricken rural community in Limpopo Province, approximately two hours northeast of Johannesburg. YWAV began in 2000 with a group of teenagers, many of whom were orphaned by AIDS and envisioned a brighter future. YWAV members use theater and music to teach AIDS awareness and other issues to their peers and neighbors. In its ten year history, YWAV has expanded into many different program areas to serve the needs of the community. Programs include:
- HIV/AIDS prevention education in schools and churches
- Teen youth group for after-school and weekend recreation & activities
- Soup Kitchen after-school feeding program
- Adult HIV/AIDS support group
- Vegetable gardening for subsistence and income generation
- Community-wide seminars in Youth Empowerment, HIV/AIDS, and abuse
- Trainings & Workshops in conflict resolution, natural building, computer technology, public health, art, and organic gardening
THE CENTER
Intended to showcase natural building design, the earth-friendly center in Dennilton, South Africa serves as a community-wide resource for children, youth, and adults in an area that has been devastated by AIDS. Groundbreaking for the center’s construction was in July 2005 and the completion of Phase One was marked in 2007. Phase Two ended in August 2009 as the main construction project came to a close and full project implementation was handed over to the YWAV staff.
The generous contributions of NextAid’s donors enabled the following structures to be built:
- Administration offices
- Performance space
- Outdoor kitchen & sitting area
- 3 Compost toilets
- Strawbale multipurpose building (offices/crafts)
- Soccer Field
- Permaculture gardens & fruit tree orchards
- Security guard’s house
- Main entrance gate and gate house
- Solar-electric security fencing, earthbag wall & gates
- Income generating mini convenience shop and library reading room
- Four-bedroom children’s home
- Construction workshop, toolshed and brickyard
- Garden shadehouse and gardening storage shed
- Home for the YWAV Directors and their family
Read about our full team of natural builders, architects and project consultants.
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WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable development is the practice of building and developing through utilizing available resources so that they are either continually renewed or preserved for use by future generations.
Read more about how AIDS is connected to Sustainable Development.
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PEACE TILE MURAL PROJECT
NextAid's Youth With A Vision performance space is the permanent home of the International Peace Tiles mural.
NextAid has installed the mural of tiles in our beautiful performance space at the Youth With A Vision Center in Dennilton, South Africa. The wall of the main performance stage exhibits the collection of tiles that include 30+ international tiles as well as locally made tiles. NextAid is grateful for this opportunity and thanks the entire Peace Tiles network. In August 2006, NextAid sponsored a Peace Tiles making workshop and community event attended by approximately 100 Dennilton community members. The tile making was coordinated by NextAid volunteer, Sonni Miccoci of San Francisco who spent 3 months living on-site and working with the youth. Tiles were made by Youth With A Vision members ranging in age from four-years old to over 70! The Dennilton-made tiles have since been displayed at the World AIDS Day, Dance 4 Life event in Durban.
The International World AIDS Day Peace Tiles project was spearheaded by Lars Hasselblad Torres, the founder of Peace Tiles and Development Art (www.devarts.org) and supported by ActAlive (www.actalive.org), Art4Development Network (www.art4development.net), NextAid (www.nextaid.org), Visual Voices (www.visualvoices.org) and the Omidyar Network (www.omidyar.net).
NextAid is displaying tiles from workshops in:
Dakar, Senegal
Rajasthan, India
Phuket, Thailand
Kenya
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