Leave No Child Behind

Vulnerable children and unemployed youth are acutely impacted by the knock-on impact of Covid-19 lockdown & regulations. The COVID19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on the vulnerability of children who are likely to be left behind, while the world is concentrating on a health crisis.

As these vulnerable children have been put at risk, their safety and basic rights, such as nutrition, education, protection from abuse and violence and daily hygiene have come under threat. A hungry child cannot thrive. An uneducated child cannot access opportunities. A malnutrition child does not develop to their full potential. A violent child grow up thinking violence is okay. A child without a family finds their only family in the number on the streets, i.e. a gang.

Uviwe Child & Youth Services is acutely aware of the secondary effects that have resulted from Covid-19 regulations and lockdown restrictions, particularly on the lives of children in under resourced-communities. The knock-on impact of school & feeding scheme closures, the loss of family income and the struggle for parents and caregivers to care for their children have far reaching effects. Unemployed youth cannot access the internet, or connect with online learning programmes and the gap between skilled and unskilled, employed and unemployed are getting bigger and bigger. The most vulnerable is left behind.

At UVIWE we realised the need to upscale our response, to not only fight the spread of the coronavirus, but to also ensure vulnerable children and youth are not left behind. We've developed an action plan to offer sustainable solutions, while dealing with the challenges presented by the global outbreak of COVID-19. We all had to adapt rapidly to the emerging ‘different normal', acknowledging that this is more difficult for vulnerable children and youth in low-income communities.

Our Covid-19 Action Plan is based on our three-fold strategy to ensure that no child is left behind – from first steps to fist job:

1. Provide immediate RELIEF during lockdown.

2. RESTORE opportunities for vulnerable children & youth to thrive, according to a “different” normal, as lockdown levels are lifted and

3. RENEW our ECD, Teens and Youth development programmes to ensure children and youth are overcomers and can thrive in the long term.

You can help us Leave No Child Behind. We've created different opportunities for you to make a meaningful difference during, after, and in the future of vulnerable children and youth, far beyond lockdown. It is everyone’s responsibility to continue to create pathways for all children to reach their full potential. Together we can achieve massive things, even while the country is in lockdown and the world is dealing with a global health pandemic!

Extensive financial resources are needed for us to continue to protect the most vulnerable, while starting up education and development programmes to help young people succeed at school, at life, and creating self-employment opportunities and participate in the economic rebuilding of our community.

Let us work together to make sure that:

No child is left behind - to die of malnutrition.

No child is left behind - without an education.

No child is left behind - to fail at school.

No child is left behind - with only a gang to care.

No child is left behind - to fail at life.