Lulekani
The Leka Gape Organization is mainly conducting its work in Lulekani, a suburb and former township of Phalaborwa in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
This area is one of the poorest regions of South Africa. Despite the altered political circumstances the discrepancy between poor and black and wealthy and white people has not changed.
The approximately 50 000 inhabitants of Lulekani are solely depended on the work in the surrounding mines and farms. The mines will probably close down within the next 20 years.
Many people live under poor circumstances and have to fight for survival daily, as they cannot escape a vicious circle of poverty, unemployment, and discrimination.
Young people aged 16 to 30 are mostly concerned by the high unemployment. Especially children, youth and single parents - mostly women - suffer from insufficient infrastructure and social disadvantages.
How many of the young people who have to earn their living on the streets and who also live there is not exactly known.
As many youth cannot even see a limited perspective for their future, their motivation for a good education is very low.
In addition to that, schools are badly equipped and necessary information- and communication structures are nonexistent.
There are hardly any possibilities of useful free time activities and a lack of consulting and information centres, programs to learn social competences, homework surveillance and possibilities of vocational trainings in the formal and informal sector.