To summarize 10 months of memories,
unforgettable experiences and inspiration is impossible. I want to however take
this opportunity to thank Grassroot Soccer for letting me experience the
special work being done in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I’m happy to have had
some input in making the site the best it could possibly be. The fight to
reduce new HIV infections is a noble one – I hope organizations like GRS
continue getting the spotlight they deserve because of the great work they are
doing. Thanks to you for supporting my
blog – it has been a pleasure to write about my South African adventure. Thanks
to all those who helped me through moral support and the donations that have
all made this experience possible. I am humbled.
Last week I attended my last few sessions
of Skillz Street. After missing the prior week because of torrential rain, it
was fantastic to make it back. Our numbers were hovering round 81 girls who all
seem to really be loving the program – I have been inspired by the enthusiasm
and heart displayed by the girls of Skillz Street! Special mention must go to
the coaches that played such an important role in creating the lively
atmosphere that exist at Skillz Street. The spirit of the curriculum encourages
singing, dancing and tons of fun for the girls – I think we’ve lived up to
this, and more.
June 16th was a big day for the
Port Elizabeth team, after weeks of planning and promotion the it was show time
for the INSPI(RED) tournament. We managed to get our minimum goal of 16 teams
to participate in the site’s first fund raising tournament. Each team was
required to pay R1,000 ($147) for a team of 10 players. The tournament brought
together companies from various industries plus some local community teams. All
funds raised from the tournament will go to Grassroot Soccer HCT soccer
tournaments in the local townships where we do most of our work.
The teams were divided into 4 groups of 4,
with the top two making it to the quarter finals and the winners of that round
contesting the semi-finals and finally the winners of the semis fighting for
top honors in the final. We had some fantastic prizes from Nike, Waltons and
FIFA. These proved to be a great incentive to attracting teams and making the
tournament worthwhile. The competition was fierce but fair, and teams got a
glimpse of the work GRS does by participating in one of our Skillz Activities:
“Find The Ball.” In fact each team was paired up with one of our coaches – as a
way for them to get a sense of how great our coaches are, and for them to ask
any questions they might have concerning GRS.
Lizzy Karoly, a fellow tournament put the
tournament together and it was a pleasure to be part of planning and organizing
the tournament, particularly considering the fact that this was going to be my
last act as a GRS intern. The pictures below will do much better job of
capturing the mood on the day than any words I can put down.
Week two of Skillz Street saw 91 girls making it back
excited to continue participating in this exciting new after school program at
Molefe primary school in New Brighton township. Skillz Street has drawn girls
aged between 10 and 15 from the surrounding community. Tuesday was a
particularly rainy day, so we couldn’t play football as normal. Team pictures were
the order of the day.
Every participant in Skillz Street gets what is known as a Skillz Street album, which works as a
work book for different sessions. At the end of the program girls get to keep
these. On Tuesday I had the task of taking individual and team picturesof all the girls – each girl would get an
individual picture and one with their fellow team mates. Needless to say, the
girls were very excited about the picture taking process, some were more into the
camera shots than others, but the excitement was universal. The team photos in the post below are a testament to the
spirit and genuine enthusiasm that exists at Skillz Street.
Thursday – After developing
pictures the day before, Thursday was when the young ladies received their 2
pictures. Each coach had the task of handing these out to their teams and the
joy on the kids’ faces truly warmed my heart. I was happy to be involved in
helping create such camaraderie among the girls and the coaches. The main
activity for Thursday was Community mapping – an activity where the girls get
to use their workbooks. Community mapping involves drawing a basic map of one’s
surrounding community with their house in the middle. Coaches came prepared,
with examples of their own Community maps to show the girls. As is common with
this sort of activity the girls dug into their workbooks – happily drawing,
coloring and perfecting their versions of the Community map. Community maps are
also designed to help girls identify safe and unsafe places in their community.
The overarching message of the activity being that the girls should avoid
unsafe places in their community and being aware of safe places that they can make use of.
A sunny day also meant that we were able to play some football
– which the girls were happy to do. It was a special day once again at Skillz
Street – watching all female coaches mentoring 91 females was fascinating to
observe. One can never put a price on the impact of our programs – today the
spirit and the positive vibe at Molefe was tangible. Girls were happy to be
there, and coaches seemed aware of the special position they hold in the lives
of these young girls – at least at this moment in time.
Between May 26th and June 25th our team of female coaches will be delivering the Skillz Street curriculum at Molefe primary school in New Brighton township. We meet every Tuesday and Thursday for this unique program exclusively designed for girls aged between 10 and 15. The gallery below will be updated on a weekly basis, reflecting the incredible spirit that exists at Skillz Street Port Elizabeth, enjoy! Click on any of the pictures to start up the gallery.
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Today saw the return of the Skillz Street intervention to Port Elizabeth! After a successfully training 20 coaches in April, we were ready to execute another fun filled set of sessions with girls aged between 10 and 14 from New Brighton township in Port Elizabeth. This all intervention promotes recreational activity among females, as they do not typically get the same opportunities in sport as their male counterparts; it also has a life skills and HIV prevention component because HIV is disproportionally concentrated among girls and women.
We were a bit apprehensive about the number of girls that would attend having sent out 178 invites in the form of consent forms that would go to parents who would then decide whether they would let their kids participate in our program. 100 girls showed up and the excitement in their chatter and participation throughout certainly lifted my spirit after a lot of hard work preparing and making sure this intervention would be memorable and impactful for the young ladies in attendance. All the signs point to this.
Our coaches stepped up to the plate and their enthusiasm rubbed off on the kids - I have a feeling more than 100 girls will show up on Thursday. Below are a few snapshots of Skillz Street Port Elizabeth - this is what we do, and moments like these make it all worth it:
Molefe Primary school will be our host.
Coaches welcome the ladies to Skillz Street.
One of the groups with their coach (10 girls per coach)
Girls from different schools get to know each other through a game of Bingo.
Coaches form bonds with their teams through team time which happens at the beginning and end of the session.
More on Skillz Street to come! Be sure to vote for GRS in the Chase Community Giving Challenge, here.
Dr. Hans Rosling is renowned for his clever interpretation of data through various tools such as Gapminder that help us understand the world better. Here he gives us a clearer picture of AIDS in Africa - a very misunderstood topic. He highlights the various differences in the epidemic around the continent since its its discovery in 1983:
He ultimately supports prevention of new infections of HIV as a means to attacking the epidemic as prevention and care are often out of the reach of many in African countries. Please support GRS and all that we do - every bit of it helps.
Meanwhile you can vote for us on the Chase Community challenge here: http://bit.ly/eJtKKq
Hope you're all well. Just wanted to
update you on an incredible opportunity for the organization I am
currently interning with, the whole process will not be longer than 10
minutes, check it out:
Grassroot Soccer is eligible to win
up to $500,000 in the Chase Community Giving program by being one of
the Top 25 vote-getting charities in their Facebook challenge. In addition, a generous donor has pledged to donate $1 to GRS for every vote we receive. We need your vote to win! It's simple and easy to vote for GRS online if you use Facebook. Vote by going here: http://bit.ly/eJtKKq
What would GRS do with $500k from Chase? Watch this 30-sec. Youtube video:
Please
go online today, vote, share on your profile, share the video, and
email your friends and family and ask them to vote too. Remember, 1
minute of your time to vote means $1 towards our fight to stop HIV. VOTING ENDS MAY 25th so please vote today!
I
have had experience planning and implementing the Skillz Street program
mentioned in the video above. For the latest update on Skillz Street
where I am check this link out: http://tiny.cc/pejtn
On the week of June 17th I will be calling time on my 10 month internship with Grassroot Soccer. We're currently planning the next phase of Skillz Street following our Training of Coaches. Most of my time will be spent making sure we are able to deliver the new curriculum effectively. Lots of work, lots of planning, meetings and fun for the kids! Updates to come.
On Wednesday April 27th, South Africans
celebrated Freedom Day – a very
important day in the nation’s history commemorating the country's first post-apartheid elections in 1994. Grassroot Soccer Port Elizabeth hosted an HIV Counseling and
Testing (HCT) Soccer tournament in Motherwell. This was the third such event I was
involved with in my internship experience.
Having hosted tournaments in Zwide
and New Brighton townships previously, it was Motherwell’s turn this time
around.Planning was a painstaking process as we sought to make the
most of the Public holiday to engage over 200 kids and get almost 100 community
members tested for HIV. The biggest challenge was ensuring the 16 teams of 14
players would all show up – on the day to participate in an all day event where they would play soccer, participate in GRS avtivities and have the opportunity to test for HIV.
14 out of the 16 made it, the tone of the tournament was fun, loud and merry. Overall 280 people tested for HIV, including over 150 players and over 100 community members.
Following successful pilots of the curriculum in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, Skillz Street has officially been added as a supplementary curriculum as part of Grassroot Soccer’s Life Skillz and HIV prevention work in South Africa. With funding partly from the Elton John foundation GRS has trained coaches in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth in this innovative curriculum that is designed to cater to young girls who in South Africa are more likely to contract HIV than their male counterparts.
As mentioned in a prior blog Skillz Street is is a girls targeted intervention forming part of Grassroot Soccer’s life skills and HIV prevention programs. The intervention has been developed in response to overwhelming research that shows:
1.Participation in sport among adolescent females correlates to a range of health benefits, and;
2.HIV is disproportionately concentrated among women and girls.
Skillz Street combines Fair Play soccer with HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT), assertiveness-, efficacy-, and interpersonal relationship-building activities including a peer led community outreach day.
In the pilot version of the curriculum run in November we did not implement the HCT element but this was tried out successfully in Cape Town and we will be following suite here in Port Elizabeth. Testing is voluntary and for many of the girls, this will be their first time testing for HIV. The goal is to allow them to know their status and build good habits. Many young people have their first sexual experience early, therefore being aware of the dangers that come with unprotected sex and multiple sexual partners will hopefully deter them from irresponsible sex. The community outreach component of the program allows girls to be aware of opportunities and services available in their communities. Fairplay soccer places an emphasis on teamwork, respecting opponents and communication between players and a mediator.
On Wednesday April 13th a Training of Coches (ToC) for Skillz Street began. We decided to train all our female coaches to start things off, with the view of training more coaches in future. The training lasted 3 days and one of our Trainers from Cape Town, “Hooter” led the group in discussion and activities from the Skillz Street curriculum. It was a fantastic time and on the final day coaches were confident enough to deliver parts of the curriculum to each other in preparation of actually doing the program with kids in their communities.
I was happy to be part of the planning and implementation of the training and having already planned and coordinated the last Skillz Street I am sure that we can use lessons from the pilot and this training to ensure that the program fulfills its goal of engaging young girls in a meaningful way. Skillz Street targets girls aged between 12 and 18.
Our coaches were very responsive and their position as role models in their communities is undoubted. The next 3 weeks will involve some heavy planning to ensure that Skillz Street reaches girls in the three communities we serve. I am energized by the challenge and hopeful that our program will prove to be a catalyst to positive change.
Coaches participating in a Skillz Street discussion.
During the training we watched some high impact videos illustrating the power and potential of young girls when given opportunities. Our organization plays a part in the lives of a generation of girls that we hope will live a happy healthy life HIV free.
First video - The Girl Effect (see girleffect.org) :
Second video 1 goal, 2 girls:
Approximately 600 girls will go through the Skillz Street program in Port Elizabeth this calendar year. I was inspired by the energy and verve of our coaches during the training and I am confident that they will take this to the field with the young girls we will be working with!
Thank you for checking out my blog. I am currently fund raising for an internship experience with Grassroot Soccer starting in August 2010. My goal is to raise $5,000 for living expenses and flights (currently at $4,392). I would appreciate your contribution to the cause!
