A new fitness room at a youth rehab centre in South Africa will be named after the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie.
Local members presented the president of the Rotary Club of Morningside, Johannesburg with a cheque for $10,000Â this afternoon, which Greta Du Bois says will greatly help their facility for boys aged 13 to 18.
“We are always short of money, and now we can improve, and we can upgrade our services. We can make sure that the inpatients will have not only a sane mind, but also sane body, and physically be sound.”
Du Bois says drug use is a major problem in the township of Diepsloot, as a mixture of heroin and other drugs can be purchased for cheap, and its residents are extremely poor.
“They live in shanty houses, most of them have got no electricity or water, and also, because of the circumstances, they go into drugs. They have got no jobs; the young people don’t see a future because they really have not got an education.”
The project was scouted out by local Rotary members on an exchange.
Kevin Hilgers says they were struck by the desire to help when the visited the centre, and felt an exercise space would be the perfect fit.
“I think that when you want to spend time at a rehabilitation centre, fitness is part of that, and they were lacking that woefully, and so when I saw fitness facility I just thought, treadmill, and all the exercise equipment; that is a very positive thing for young boys looking to better their life.”
A $4,000 grant came from the Rotary Foundation, which Du Bois was prepared to receive on her trip, along with other members of her Rotary Club.
However, she was surprised by the other $6,000, which was pitched in by the GP Rotary club.