Turning the Lives upside down of several Youth at Risk on the Cape Flats

A leap of faith taken by Charles D. January three years ago has literally, turned the lives of Cape Flats youth upside down.

Head of the Leap Foundation, a Section 21 company, Mr. January works with youngsters from the Cape Flats, training them in life skills. As most of the youngsters on the programme come from violent homes and communities where gangsterism and crime is rife, Mr. January concentrates on confidence building.

The Youth at Risk programme is more than just a once-off training course. For Mr. January, the programme and the Leap Foundation are a testimony to his brother Edward, killed 10 years ago in gangrelated violence. The worst part of this terrible experience is the fact that those responsible for this terrible deed were people they grew up with, their friends, their peers.

To say Mr. January is passionate about his work would be an understatement. It is clear that his work with young people is a vocation, not a job. It is a vocation that has brought him full circle. A self-confessed “okie from the Cape Flats,” Mr.. January’s big dream was to work for Mossgas in the Marketing Department. He was the only child in his family to matriculate and he registered at Peninsula Technikon, before he even had money to pay his fees.

Finally, 102 bursary applications later, with 101 refusals, Mr. January started his three-year marketing diploma.

He said: “A higher hand has guided me through life. God was with me all the way.”

With his spiritual strength, and some motivational inspiration from the self-help book “Awakening the Giant Within”, Mr. January started his dream job at Mossgas. It was not all smooth-sailing. He was plagued by depression and bouts of self-doubt. Although he was effortlessly bounding up the corporate ladder, his personal relationships were floundering. “My professional life did not match up with my personal life.”

In 1997, the man his friends called “the joker”, attempted suicide by trying to drown himself in the sea. With therapy, Mr. January managed to work through the depression. He resigned from Mossgas and moved back to Cape Town where he accepted the position of Regional Business Advisor for a major Oil company.

The decision to eventually give up his corporate job, car and substantial salary to work for his community took a huge “Leap of faith”, and so Mr. January named his marketing business Leap Business Consultants. The Leap Foundation was formed because he felt more needed to be done about the morals and values of the youth of our country, like the people who killed his brother.

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