Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Port Elizabeth updates


Our office is abuzz as always, obstacles or not. Unfortunately we have had no electricity for the last week since someone decided that it was a good idea to steal the copper wires connecting us to the electrical grid! In typical GRS fashion we have buckled down and the show goes on.

Schools are currently out at the moment, and so most of our coaches will not be doing any interventions this week – the holiday is only a week long. Our training team is taking the time to train more of our coaches in the Generation Skillz curriculum which is targeted at youths aged 15 – 19. The topics covered here are more mature than those covered in the regular Skillz Curriculum which is for 12 to 15 year olds. Not all of our 47 coaches had been trained in the curriculum, so now is the ideal time to catch up so we can have enough capacity to meet our target for graduates at the end of the year.

Next week we will be returning to Skillz Street, an intervention we piloted at the end of last year. This time around we will have a 3 day training for coaches that will be delivering the curriculum in our site. Skillz Street is a post Skillz curriculum intervention for girls – main components of this intervention include empowerment of young girls through sport, while promoting HIV prevention and community engagement. I will be assisting with the training as far as day to day logistics go, as a team from our Cape Town Headquarters will be guiding our trainers.

Having spent almost 8 months in Port Elizabeth, I am always floored by the dedication of some of the people I work with – the quest to reduce HIV infections and promote real behavior change will need this level of commitment. I am inspired and I hope to finish my last 2 months on the highest possible note.

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