The adventure goes on….! |05 July 2018

Since May 7, the Youth Residential Centre has opened ... The inauguration took place on May 11 in the presence of the ministers for Family Affairs as well as for Education. Vice-President Vincent Meriton was present as well as the Speaker of the National Assembly. The families of the youngsters were also invited.

Indeed, with the Youth Residential Centre which accommodates 10 youngsters, there is also a Day Centre which receives twenty youngsters on the SDA site in Perseverance. The Day Centre is run by a Ministry of Education team and is aimed at youngsters who have had difficulty integrating and adapting in schools.

It has been almost seven years since my wife, Chantal, myself and the principal secretary of Social Affairs, Linda William Melanie, are in this dynamic of reflection on this project ... Because we think it was time for our country to be endowed with a device to accommodate these youngsters with personal, family and social difficulty, these youngsters who are on the margins of society, consequence of a lack of links as well as a complicated family history...

We thank Jeanne Simeon, at the time Minister for Family Affairs, succeeded by Mitcy Larue for their support and encouragement in the realisation of this project.

The project is now implemented! Since March 19 we were engaged in an accelerated training of the candidates recruited to accompany these youngsters. The training lasted 6 weeks, including one week attachment in the various institutions receiving children. We were able to complete the training with an assessment of each of the candidates followed by a confirmation in their function as Residential Support Officers. This was followed by a week of organisation and installation in the Perseverance building made available by Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Anacoura as part of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on the day of the inauguration by the representatives of the Ministry of Education and that of Family Affairs.

Since then, we continue our mission as consultants and coach ... We have a team of 9 employees trained in the accompaniment of these youngsters, assisted by 3 soldiers, who also followed the training, and put at our disposition by their hierarchy.

As part of the organisation, a partnership was established between the Day Centre and the Hosting device. The hard work of Désirée Hermitte and PS William Melanie has allowed this achievement. All the youngsters benefit from a day care in the framework of the workshops animated by various personalities according to their skills and until 2.30 pm ... Then each group is supported by its respective staff and this up to 4 pm. The youth from the Residential Centre then return to their building.

It has been almost a month since the Centre has been running without important difficulties on the part of youngsters even if we could have thought otherwise...!  The team also had to manage small conflicts between comrades, without major consequences. The group of young people is quite heterogeneous ... some of the youngsters are more marked by their history and their roaming. The common thread is a big absenteeism from school, while they are all endowed with real intelligence. Paradoxically the vast majority of them suffer from the absence of their families...!

The first task of the team is to strive to tame them and create a relationship of trust ... We believe that this part of the mission is still to be accomplished! The team has also to engage the part of socialisation and integration in the school environment or the society in general. The team is continuing its work, despite some difficulties and even resistance from youngsters. What reassures us is that a good part of the youngsters want to integrate an apprenticeship because in their personalised project, everyone has been able to express their wish for training...! It means that nothing is lost for them ... they are still inhabited by the hope of a better life and somewhere in their heart hide this little flame…!

As far as we are concerned, we take a lot of pleasure to meet these young people...! We have been able to create a relationship of trust with them ... they recognise us ... They are children of their age, 12 to 16 years, in search of affection and recognition ... They have a desire to LIVE, sometimes, of course in an anarchic way ...! They had to live an absence of attachment in their family environment ... their word never had to be taken into account ... nobody would have managed to lay the ban as well as the limits. The parents have surely tried but without support from the entourage. For some of them, they have sometimes been used by malicious adults...!

We continue our mission with great confidence in the future of these youngsters ... we believe in them and we would like to ask our compatriots Seychellois to share this with us because these youngsters will be the citizens of tomorrow ... We must stop stigmatising them and say that they are lost ... "they are thieves, drug addicts and alcoholics ...! "

As my friend Xavier Bouchereau said in his book "In the Heart of Others" Ed. Accent Aigu, Auxerre, France, 2013: "With adolescents, my job is most often to make their imagination bear fruit while bringing them back to reality, it's an exciting dance, where the subject draws in his dreams enough for him to transform his life .... Dream, dream as much as you can but do not forget to realize yourself through them! Now I know that I have to count with an imaginary that take the mask of reality to better deceive her ...» This is our mission with these youngsters…help them to face and integrate the reality…If we adults believe in this, it will be possible…!

Let's not forget that they are our children ... they did not ask to be born ... but they are there and we must take care of them and build with them their future...

It is in this spirit that we appeal to good will ... the bearers of this project need you, your help and your support ... We need you to sponsor us through donations, a commitment, which could take the form of certain activities such as trips to the sea, such as diving or fishing a few days a month, the animation of a music workshop, computer ... because the budget covering this programme is relatively limited. We also need professionals to accept these youngsters in various workshops such as carpentry, mechanics, navy...If you are interested you can contact SHIRLEY at the Social Office: 4281623.

If we want this project to succeed, the team supervising the youngsters as well as the porters of this project need to feel that the population, elected members or simple citizens, are ready to support them. Because the continuation of this project, whose future installation is planned for Cap Ternay probably in 2019/2020, will depend on the commitment of each one of us towards our youngsters.

The future of our children depends on it...!

Chantal and Frank Underwood

Consultants

Email: franck.underwood@wanadoo.fr