My Grassroot experience: HCT

Play to Win, Test to live!

This was the tagline to our Heritage Day HCT. The whole Port Elizabeth Staff: coaches, interns, staff and site-coordinator were assigned roles in this major holiday event based on GRS principles. It truly was Grassroot Soccer at work.

Often you read about the millions of people that play the game informally at the grassroot level and I have played there most of my life. This event was an opportunity for an organization that does social profit work such as ours to harness the popularity of the game among the youth in the area to provide them with some education (on HIV/AIDS), an opportunity to test for the disease and play the game they love.

My direct supervisor Titie was in charge of the overall planning of the event, a big big job considering our target of getting 250 players and community members tested. As interns we were assigned various roles before and during the tournament, doing our best to support her. It was perhaps a little more difficult to do considering the fact that we are still figuring out the lay of the land, and we did lack experience with an event quite like this one. We gave it our best though, and I think our multicultural intern team did a sterling job.

New Start and the South African Health Department were our testing partners; we bought 300 HIV testing kits and planned on other various logistics for the day. This included lunch, snacks, t-shirts, advertising, venue, media, entertainment and recruitment of players. It was certainly a bit of a squeeze leading up to the tournament, but it was great to see the kick off of the tournament as kids from Zwide, and surrounding townships.

The day's schedule, which I played a part in planning was based on teams rotating between playing football, participating in Find The Ball (led by several GRS coaches) and if they chose to - getting tested for HIV. Things started off a bit hairy, as teams arrived slightly later than planned and some of the testers were not fully prepared at the assigned start time. We did however get things started in decent time and as soon as the DJ got his music going the tournament was well and truly on! It was an explosion of house, all day!

Part of the plan of the tournament was to attract passing members of the public, in addition to the +100 kids playing in the tournament. I was impressed by the spirit displayed by the teams participating in the tournament. The kids were well aware of the fact that testing was an essential part of their success in the tournament and there was more than a few cases of teams coming to test together as teams. There was lots of dancing, singing and healthy competition as the kids were engrossed in a great day out of organized fun!

Find the Ball was an important activity, seeing as it highlights the important point that HIV cannot be detected from someone's appearance. We made sure that on the schedule that each team did Find the Ball before they tested. I personally feel that more educational opportunities are necessary in terms of future HCT's.

The football itself was a joy to watch. We pushed to involve 15 to 17 year olds, but there were more than a few players outside of this range. Part of the problem was partnering organizations struggling to find participants in the age group therefore enlisting younger and sometimes older kids. It worked out in the end, and the tournament went without too much incident involving the difference in age.

As for testing, the most important part of the day, we managed to get 189 people tested overall, and although we haven't received the full breakdown yet, we do know that 5 people tested positive for HIV. I was in charge of the testing area on the day, as far as directing people to the right places and my guess would be that 100 to 110 players were tested on the day (updates to follow as soon as I have them).

Every individual who tested received pre and post test counseling which is crucial when dealing with something as important as the result of an HIV test. Each person also received a t-shirt which was a token of their participation in our event. In my eyes this is another means of spreading the name of our organization in the community, as we seek to expand our work in the community. The tagline, Play to Win, Test to live! was also on the T-shirt, another way to encourage more people to know their HIV status in an era of epidemic.The individuals who would have tested positive would also be refereed to local resources available to help them live healthy lives. This includes a local HCT center, providing access to counseling and Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) which are free to the public. I can only hope that these individuals as hurt as they may be by the news will eventually be aided by this knowledge as they seek to live their lives differently.

The HCT was a lesson in community engagement for me, and I think that there needs to be even more community based events where further opportunities to educate, inspire and provide access to services to communities that are plagued by lack. I was proud to be part of this event, and I look forward to playing a role in the next one.

Pictures........

The Poster