Impact: Jamie's Story

Jamie, a Grade 10 School of Hard Knocks learner from Bonteheuwel, is ‘a quiet person but prone to finding trouble outside of our sessions,’ says Coach Urshwin.

‘As time passed I got to know Jamie better and saw how he was fascinated by gangsterism. He started coming high to the sessions and started interacting less and less until I decided to intervene. ‘

Jamie stays in a gang infested area where if you don't stand out you tend to want to fit in. Where Jamie comes from drugs have become a norm.

‘I had a few one on ones with Jamie and he made a huge turn around. Jamie is more outspoken now and has even changed his way of speaking - he doesn't use gang language in front of me anymore.’

Jamie recently made headlines in News 24 as he and a few of his friends have started their own maintenance business! Today the seven young men behind Oddjobbi have proved their parents have nothing to worry about – their business is thriving.

“My mother is very proud and excited about what we started, and she wants to see us successful one day,” Dillon says. 

“We first started selling dagga on a street corner,” Dylan told News24. “We thought it wasn’t going to work out as it puts us in danger. We decided to stop that and opened the maintenance business instead.”