Youth

Written by Evie Ndhlovu – Program Manager, Europe, Africa & the Middle East

The Kruger National Park is known far and wide for its size, beauty and inhabitants. The wildlife that is found here is spectacular and it draws thousands of travellers yearly to South Africa. 

The park is a thriving financial hub and employs many people. However, in the villages that surround the glamorous fences of the Kruger National Park, thousands of people live in poverty, with no access to education and basic livelihood needs.

Because of this disparity in living conditions, many youths are left with no choice but to leave their homes for bigger cities for employment or engage in criminal activity as a means to financial independence. 

The GoodWork Foundation is a non-profit organization that is providing training to many youths from the villages around the Kruger National Park and creating opportunities. 

Through their bridging academies and Conservation and Hospitality Schools, the GWF trains over 40 youth a year and matches them with opportunities in the relevant fields.

Planeterra partnered with the GWF’s Tourism and Hospitality and Tourism Academy and through a CFLI granted program, was able to provide training and a start-up grant to build an express Coffee Bar at their Hazyview Campus.

The Coffee bar provides delicious coffee and a tasty macadamia snack sourced locally. Planeterra also facilitated an entry to the travel market through a connection with G Adventures’ travellers, who weekly, after a day in the Kruger National Park, get to have a GWF coffee and snack and hear from local young people about how tourism is changing their futures.

The coffee bar aims to provide practical training for youth who are in the Hospitality industry, provide an income for the academy to open its doors to more youth in the area and provide free education while allowing young people to also earn an income from tourism. 

Through travel, more and more youth from Kruger are gaining confidence in themselves and their value within the tourism industry of South Africa. Young women are becoming more and more ambitious and after their training is complete, they’re starting their own businesses in the tourism industry.

Planeterra continues to support the incredible work of the GWF by advocating for travellers to help them, one coffee at a time. 

Planeterra works with communities that are in need of support, whether to preserve an ancient culture, create revenue for community infrastructure and healthcare, or to provide employment to a community with high unemployment. As we have grown and expanded through our 50 in 5 campaign, we have undertaken projects that not only support Indigenous and rural communities, but also at-risk communities like people living with disabilities, migrants and refugees.
Planeterra launched its very first project in Europe in 2016, and since then, the refugee and migrant community on the continent has been an important beneficiary of our work. Europe currently faces its greatest migrant challenge since the end of the Second World War, with a large number of people seeking refuge from war, poverty and political instability in nearby regions. According to UN Refugees, at the end of 2016, nearly 5.2 million refugees and migrants reached Europe, and in 2017 alone more than 170,000 risked their lives trying to reach the continent by sea. Migrants arrive to the continent with little to no prospects for jobs, and that’s where Planeterra fits in.
Although Planeterra has a number of projects around the world that benefit migrants or newcomers to a country, this World Refugee Day we are highlighting three of our projects dedicated exclusively to helping newcomers integrate into society and benefit from the European tourism industry.