Cecilia Youth Center is a Community Organization under Balaka Parish and funded by Montfort Projects. It provides favourable environment for young people from age 3 to 25 to realize their skills in the fields of Sports, Culture, Charity Work, Religion and General Education. Some History:
The story of the Carraras combined with the grouping to commemorate world youth day gave birth a new grouping c
alled Cecilia Youth Centre (C*C). With its roots in Tiyeni Tisewere (as most of the youth and educators who started C*C came from there), C*C is still part and parcel of Balaka Parish. In its early stages, C*C had no established structures as such youths used to meet in open places until late 2005 when the Carraras and other well-wishers from Italy decided to build a structure specifically meant for C*C. In November 2005, a fence was erected and trees were planted. In 2006, a summer hut was built to act as a place for in-door activities, mass and other gatherings of similar nature. Small summer huts were also constructed. This was followed by a hall and a basketball court. Realizing the need to balance Animation (learning through creative, interactive and playful activities) and Information (learning through books and computers), C*C constructed a library to cater for the information category. The library supports both recreational as well as academic reading and research. In 2011, the library was demarcated to have a room specifically meant for the young ones (3-9 years), those at kindergarten and early primary school. This room is called Children's Soft corner and is meant for storytelling and other such 'low voice' activities. In 2012, the library introduced computer lessons as a way of trying to impart computer knowledge to its youth. Every year, at the end of the school calendar, we do have summer camp where we do different activities. Since C*C traces its roots to World Youth Day commemorations, our summer camps are normally tailored around the given year's world youth day theme. The activities are inclusive of charity works, educational visits, spiritual reflections (bible reading, sharing and preaching), games (cooperative- enhancing working together and creative- promoting individual talents) and sports. We also host different visitors ranging from experts to artists, role models to friends. We also give time for leisure such that towards the end of each summer camp we organise a trip to the lake.
