The Minister for Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, has called on Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) to make youth their focus in their efforts to solve the many social challenges that face South African society.
She was speaking during the opening of the two-day Inter-Faith Summit organised by the Department of Social Development in Benoni, Gauteng.
The summit has brought together leaders from various FBOs as recognised by the Constitution of the Republic to discuss the role they can play in addressing poverty and inequality, alcohol and substance abuse, improving early childhood development, strengthening the family, dealing with the challenge of child headed households and youth development, as well as tackling violence against women and children.
During her opening address, Minister Dlamini said it was important for FBOs to work with the youth because they are the future of the country.
“Unless we ensure that our young people are moulded into responsible citizens with positive values, our country will not have a good future. FBOs provide a good platform for grounding our children in positive values at an early age,” said Minister Dlamini.
She urged FBOs to create programmes to address issues of youth unemployment and idleness because it is through inactivity that youth get involved in disruptive behaviour characterised by alcohol and substance abuse as well as criminality.
The summit builds on the outcomes of the 2012 Social Cohesion Summit which declared that all sectors of our society, including FBOs, must be mobilised in their entirety to work together to build a caring and proud society, based on shared values and a vision informed by the principles of Ubuntu, human rights and equality, social solidarity, and civic responsibility, among others.
As such, the Inter-Faith Summit endeavours to chart a clear path for the contribution of religious communities in this regard. To this end, a declaration will be signed at the end of the summit committing all stakeholders to a collective Programme of Action for dealing with social challenges in South African society.
The summit is hosted under the auspices of the department’s project Mikondzo a service delivery improvement initiative which seeks to find and roll out innovative and speedier methods for delivering services to South African citizens in cooperation with relevant role-players.
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