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Durban YMCA

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About the Durban YMCA at Present

Anchor House, 82 St Andrews Street, is in the heart of the Albert Park inner-city block, is a 9 storey building with a residence capacity of 110 beds. Accommodation is offered to students, young working people, backpackers, school and church groups throughout the year. Residents are offered an affordable rate for dinner, bed and breakfast, and an atmosphere which is conducive to communal living.

The building, and more specifically its location, provides us with an opportunity to reach into a depressed inner-city community, and we make a real difference through the programmes we offer. We seek to offer healthy alternatives to the general attraction of inner-city living, which are no different from those of London in 1844, or Durban in 1901. Our community has 52 taverns in one square kilometre; a beautiful park which is infested with vagrants and drug dealers; legal and illegal immigrants living in slum conditions, being exploited by slum landlords. Y-Zone provides the children of the area a safe place to play under supervision, where they are taught basic life skills and performing arts, as well as receiving love and attention. Our Homework Centre provides a structured enviroment in which homework is done daily. As some of the children with whom we work are heads of the household as the tender age of 10-14, we take our Life Skills programme to them at Addington Primary School, with the kind cooperation of the Principal. Our youth programmes include Advocacy and Democracy Development, Life Skills, and Performing Arts, seeking through these YMCA collaborative programmes to expand the horizons of young people and encourage them to participate in our vibrant democracy.

Our longest running programme is our Gymnastic Club, which is based at the Public Service Training Academy premises in Bartle Road Umbilo. This club provides gymnastics training to able bodied and physically challenged young people, offering a generous sponsorship to children from local children’s homes, affording them an opportunity to participate in an activity which provides a wonderfully disciplined grounding for life.