Masiphumelele is a small township between n Kommitjie and Sunvalley; in this small community lives black people that come from different provinces and have different cultures.
All of these Masiphumelele residents came to the Western Cape in search of greener pastures. This small community consists of many different people including people from outside the country. This township has a high rate of youth involved in alcohol and substance abuse.
The youth of Masiphumelele is in massive crisis because they are endangering themselves without noticing that their future is fading away. They only consider drinking and being involved in drugs are fascinating things to do.
The use of drugs and alcohol in Masiphumelele has became a huge issue because it has negative results on the youths' lives. Most teenage girls and boys in the community are living on the streets because of their involvement in drugs and alcohol. This kind of crisis is causing damage to the community, especially to the youth, for instance 12- and 13-year old girls are drinking alcohol without knowing that they are placing their lives in great danger. Some of these teenage girls have eventually dropped out of school, not because it was part of their intentions, but because of the results of consuming alcohol. The results include unplanned pregnancies and HIV.
On the other hand, the teenage boys are struggling and committing crimes because of their desire for money for the substances they are using. Almost each and every weekend there is person found dead on the street and robbed of all his\her belongings and stabbed very badly. It is well-known by the community that only people who walk around at night are the teenage boys that have dropped out of school. These young boys walk together in groups of about eight or nine and they all do the same thing: smoking, drinking and killing although it is impossible to tell when you see them.
Some of the shebeens in our community are not appropriate because they are not obeying the law that says alcohol should not be sold to people under the age of 18. One thing I could say is that the sheeben owners only care about their profit and business; youth to them is never an issue.
Our people don’t know how to use skills and how to preserve for another day to come, they usually use over-use the product
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