Inspirational teenagers: Whoever said the youth of today are just a bunch of feckless layabouts?

Dennis Gyamfi , social activistAge: 19
Dennis Gyamfi was raised by his grandparents in Ghana: "I would have to walk for miles carrying water on my head as a child," he recalls. "From an early age I had to go out to work to support my family." When he was 10 years old, Gyamfi joined his mother and father at their small council flat in Brixton, and his life change dramatically. "In London, my parents were working all day and night; there was no one to look after me and my siblings. I started hanging out in gangs on the streets around my estate, getting in trouble." Until a chance encounter set him on a different path.
At the age of 15, Gyamfi met a man called Soloman who worked for X-it, a programme set up by people who have successfully escaped gang life and which offers inner-city kids and teenagers an alternative to the street. Within a year of becoming involved with X-it, Gyamfi himself had become a mentor, and won a public service award for his efforts. "If it hadn't been for that meeting," Gyamfi recalls, "my life might have turned out very differently."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/inspirational-teenagers-whoever-said-the-youth-of-today-are-just-a-bunch-of-feckless-layabouts-1799804.html