Dipete Youth Empowerment Organisation

DYE (Dipete Youth Empowerment Organisation) is a nonprofit organization that was established in 2015 by a group of dedicated individuals who were determined to bring change and empower the youth. With the growth rate of drug abuse among the youth in SA along with the drop-out rate of school pupils and varsity students, D.Y.E was intrigued to find the rooted cause of why the drug use and crime amongst youth was rapidly increasing as well as the dropout rate of school children in South Africa.

In South Africa, there is circumstantial evidence of a sizable community of drug users who appear to function normally. Nonetheless, substance abuse and criminal behavior are closely related.

There are strong correlations between substance use, school dropouts and the crime in South Africa. Serious and chronic juvenile offenders are more likely to abuse substances and drop out of school than a well groomed young individual. People who abuse substances may engage in criminal activities in order to acquire drugs, and rates of criminal behavior increase during periods of addiction. Substance abuse and addiction is also associated with parole violations and re-offenses.

46.40% of offenders abuse substances and are school drop-outs. 20.42% are still receiving some form of education and 21.72% have completed school. A very small group (2%) indicated they have not received formal education. Education is listed as one of the seven cross-cultural resilience-enhancing factors. Commitment to school and school related outcomes acts as a protective factor against violence and problematic behaviors in general. The relationship between substance use and poor educational attainment is closely linked and correlated. Compromised attention, memory, judgment and motor skills resulting from regular substance abuse is likely to have a negative impact on a persons’ educational performance. At the same time, generally poor school performance may put a person at risk.

Verbal surveys were conducted with the use of open-ended questions to try and get a broader perception from the youth regarding drug abuse and school dropouts. A larger sum of our survey sample indicated that mostly one would fall into drug use because after high school, a lot of school pupils have a lot of un-certainty regarding what they want to do after matric. On the other hand, the sample also indicated that children drop out of school due to when one is not perform well or performing based on one’s expectations. In addition, due to the uncertainty and lack of motivation, most pupils drop out of varsity and some take gap years. With the consideration to the previous statement, DYE concluded that a student who has dropped out of varsity or high school pupil who have taken gap years tend to have more time to themselves without having anything to do.

Taking into account DYE’s findings concluded that the youth is in need of psychological, economical, social, emotional and physical support to decrease the level of challenges that the youth of South Africa faces such as demotivation. Therefore the DYE organizational program is aimed at incubating, rehabilitating and educating youth. Individuals with the use of psychological, social, physical, emotional and economic empowerment. In addition, DYE is also aimed at decreasing the use of drugs and school dropout rate amongst the youth population, by encouraging the youth to spend most of their free time exploring capabilities, building positive coping mechanisms, developing resilience (ability to withstand challenges) and find purpose in one’s life as a South African youth citizen.

In a nutshell, DYE is aimed at raising funds in order to secure land to build a facility that will be aimed at implementing the above mentioned goals.