Muizenberg Beach Club

MBC focuses particularly on the positive development of youth coming from the greater Lavender Hill area, a township located in Cape Town, South Africa in the sandy Cape Flats region notorious for its high rates of gang activity and violence. Over 28,330 people reside in the community, with 11,000 youth (30%) under the age of 17. Due to the high rates of poverty within the community, it is faced with a number of challenges. The levels and quality of employment are inadequate, with 69%earning a household income between 0-R1600/month ( $0-$200). Contributing to the scarcity of employment opportunities is the low education level; less than 14% have completed grade 12, and only .06% hold a bachelors degree (City of Cape Town, 2001). This lack of financial and educational capital contributes to a variety of other prevalent social issues, including high crime rates, gang activity, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS, STIs, and high rates of teenage pregnancy. Gangsterism in Lavender Hill is rife. There are a number of violent gangs operating in the area - the largest of which (the Americans) has a membership of over 5000. Children in the community are often the ones who feel the scars of poverty at its worst. With few opportunities for employment, parents struggle to provide for their families and meet the basic and essential needs for their children. As a result, the children are faced with a range of hardships over which they have very little control. A state of helplessness causes many children to turn to negative behaviours,such as gangsterism, alcohol and drug abuse, prostitution and crime. While youth are the primary victims of crime, they are also argued to be responsible for majority of the crimes committed. More children are arrested in the Western Cape than anywhere else in the country, with youth under the age of 19 making up 25% of those arrested (Youth, Crime and Urban Renewal in the Western Cape, Samara, 2005). Instead of looking to the problems with the social structures and inequalities that encourage youth to partake in crime, the youth are treated as the problems themselves. Elected officials, community members and youths themselves have expressed that the key to solving the problem of crime and gang activity in Cape Town is through creating alternatives for youth and establishing social, economic, and psychological support services necessary for their healthy integration into their communities.