This workshop provided a platform not for the speakers but for the community members themselves; it was a way for them to use their own tools to empower each other. The speakers present were only there to offer words of encouragement and experiences of their own.
The main objective for the workshop was to have the stakeholders identify the challenges that face Orange Farms as a community of youth, elders and different genders. The challenges were identified through a discussion process where stakeholders were put in groups. The challenges identified were mostly socio-economic and were youth related as well; these were teenage pregnancy, unemployment, initiation school violence, lack of service delivery, xenophobia, drug abuse and crime as the starting points.
The stakeholders were also tasked with finding the possible opportunities that are available and can be created. The opportunities were seen as the skills centre, different ways of creating employment i.e. street vending, engaging with the relevant parties to solve the problems and the most mentioned opportunity was that of learning and equipping themselves with knowledge to be able to engage more effectively.
The outcome of the meeting was the realization that the Orange Farm Stakeholders knew what was wrong in their community and were more than willing to find solutions to their challenges. A task team of volunteers was set up after the meeting to liaise with the community and find ways to adopt the opportunities listed. So for the next meeting ACTION Support Centre is looking forward to seeing the progress and adding more value to it.