Innovations for health

Just caught wind of the Cellphones for HIV project run by an organization  known as Cell-Life which uses mobile technology to strengthen the HIV sector. Here is an excerpt from their website:

"In South Africa there are approximately 36 million active cellphone users, and around 80% of all youth and adults have a cellphone. While there are many companies making money from ringtones and picture downloads, there are very few socially relevant or developmental services. This project will explore how a range of cellphone services can provide information and communication services that are useful to people infected or affected by HIV.

The project will work in many areas of HIV:

• Mass messaging for prevention;
• Mass information for positive living;
• Linking patients and clinics;
• Peer-peer support and counselling;
• Building organisational capacity of HIV-related organisations;
• Monitoring and evaluation."

A nifty idea within the HIV response movement. I hope that such internventions can really be brought to scale - in an effective way. I personally like the mass info on positive living and linking of patients and clinics. One hopes that such a potentially massive project can be linked with the important stake holders in the field. Visit the Cell-Life website here.

Additionally Cell Life has developed mobile technology to  
1.  Help pharmacies distribute and account for ARVs;
2.  Created data collection platforms through mobile phone surveys, feedback, etc;
3.  They have also adapted HIV related websites to be accessible via basic cell phones.

National Condom week

The week of February 13 is  STI/Condom and pregnancy week in Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan area. It is also known as "Condom Week." The idea is to capitalize on Valentine's day week to promote safe sex through proper and consistent use of condoms; getting tested for HIV and STIs (Sexually transmitted diseases); encouraging faithfulness and abstinence as a means of avoiding HIV.

The theme this year is "Lead and Unite to strengthen reproductive health." - and the sub theme is "Love me enough to protect me from STI's and unwanted pregnancy."

Various events have been hosted by the ATICC HIV/AIDS Unit, an initiative established by the local metro municipality to collaborate with organizations in the metro and surrounding areas focusing on the HIV/AIDS response. ATICC stands for AIDS Training, Information and Counselling Centre (ATICC)


Yesterday evening, the staff and 7 of our coaches attended a "Trucking Wellness" clinic at the Motherwell truck-stop point*. The idea is to bring awareness and encouragement to truck drivers who are seen as a high risk group as far as HIV contraction goes. The amount of traveling they do exposes them to the temptation of sexual encounters for money. Prostitution is rife in such settings, and an initiative like this aims to promote condom use. Although this is not a demographic GRS normally works with, we were happy to attend and  our coaches led a Skillz activity (Find the Ball) with attendees. There were other activities and messages imparted by other organizations followed by a braai/barbecue for all in attendance.

I want to say the event was beneficial for the handful of truckers that were in attendance, but like all things in life - the real difference is in the heat of the moment when decisions are left to the individual. During the event one of the truck drivers spoke up, thanking the organizations for taking the time to spread the word about condoms to him and his colleagues but he did raise a concern about coverage of such awareness programs. He urged our organization and others to go to smaller towns with the same messages, and events in the interest of all involved. A worthy statement, that I hope was heard and perhaps more will be done to reach more marginalized areas in the country.

* The Trucker Wellness clinic operates under the auspices of the Road Freight Association that provides support services for the road freight industry throughout the country. The representative of the RFA was a guest speaker and he stated the importance of such an event, as HIV/AIDS has negatively impacted an industry that transports 80% of goods in the economy he reminded us.

HIV Counseling and Testing

Last April the government of South Africa launched a new upscaled HIV treatment & prevention plan. Rumblings of actual implementation of the program now are coming up and there is a certain degree of controversy over the efficacy of the particular plan to intoduce HIV Counseling and testing in schools. Basically this would be a plan to avail voluntary counselling and testing at schools on weekends and holidays starting in March.

Most criticism has come from those concerned about the psychological effects on school kids should they test positive. There is no clear cut way of dealing with this particular issue it seems and certain commentators are predicting disastrous consequences that would derail any benefit to be gained from the program. Grassroot Soccer is closely watching developments in this are, since we work directly in schools with students that  will directly be affected by this program. One hopes that should the program go on, the right means of addressing positive results are in place. Some have suggested pushing the program forward in order to allow for proper research and planning for a response is done.

Back to school fever!

The last time I wore school uniform, I was in my final year at Peterhouse Boys school in Marondera, Zimbabwe. Recruiting schools for our interventions in the last 2 weeks has reminded me of my own school days, when a pressed shirt and well shined shoes were the norm.

Regardless of the standard of a school, there is a dignity and pride held by students in their school uniforms as they seek knowledge that will better their future. Uniform is mandatory in most schools in the region, and sadly in some cases it reflects a person's socio-economic status.

In our meetings with school principals and teachers we pitch our curriculum, with the hope of spending an hour a day, twice a week for  four to five weeks with their students. Titie has led the charge in this for the New Brighton site and I have been tagging along to lend a hand. Logistics can be tricky but we have managed to recruit 7 schools so far, with interventions starting at 8:00a.m. this morning. Since we now have more coaches we can work with more kids, which is great.

Some interventions will happen during school hours, in time slots reserved for "Life Orientation" which most schools have. However in some cases we can only work with the kids during after-school hours. In these cases, we start at 2:00p.m. Our increased targets are mainly focused on our core Skillz curriculum, but we will also be scaling up work on the new Generation Skillz curriculum.

One of our coaches, who's taken up the role of motivational speaker in our team has declared the new year: 20elevation - and so it begins!

The glory days: Photo opp with some of my high school peers (I'm seated bottom right)