Skillz Street returns to PE.

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.