Sunday afternoon – it’s the best time of the week to kick back, take a chill pill, relax and enjoy doing nothing before you roll into another hectic week of work, studies and the rest of life.
However that wasn’t the case in North London recently, when over 100 young people made their way to the Realise Event at Stamford Hill in the late afternoon. They were looking forward to an evening of live entertainment with drama and jaw dropping real life stories.
The youths arrived to find the doors wide open with members of the VYG dressed in their smart VYG polos and big welcoming smiles ready to usher them into the auditorium. Music blasting through the speakers and the sounds of laughter and light conversation did little to prepare them for what was to follow.
A young man named Bronson Wright casually walked to the front of the hall. As the room went silent he welcomed everyone and introduced the drama.
The production dealt with the problems that many young people face nowadays, like family break-ups, drugs, involvement in gangs, self-harm and depression, distorted love lives and abuse. It also explored the theme of emptiness and how it can affect young people.
In the scene that portrayed a fight in a club, Michael, one of the main characters, had a fist ready to connect to his head while he pointed his gun at his rival. The moment was tense as the scene froze and other characters started to realise the state their lives were in, not really understanding how they got to that point but wanting a way out.
Powerful monologues depicted just how tragic some people’s lives really are. And then the freeze broke as one of the actors leaped on to another to bring the fight to an end.
In reality, that is how life is for some young people. Fight after fight and no solution for change. However the evening continued with two shocking stories – the life experiences of young men.
The first of them became involved in the wrong crowd not because he lacked role models but simply because he hadn’t realised that he could have a better life. “I shot at a girl with my friend because she refused to answer our calls, was caught in cross fire and took a bullet to my leg,” he said. He was locked up for two years for possessing firearms.
Even worse, the second young man had been in the business of making firearms and supplying them to others. As he spoke of his notorious life, you could tell from the look on the audience’s faces that this was not what they had expected to hear.
Nonetheless, both these young men have turned their lives around. But how does one go from possessing and creating firearms to a becoming a responsible citizen?
Well, as one of the young men said: “I decided to give change a go as I realised that I was running into a dead end after causing my mum so much heart ache”. The other young man then added “I couldn’t continue living on the run, so I ran to the one place I was sure to get help. That how I ended up at the UCKG HelpCentre and started my life all over again.”
No one would expect a hard-core gangster to change their ways after a simple realisation but that’s exactly what happened – and it came straight from the horse’s mouth.
