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.

Contextualizing an epidemic

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

Thank you in advance for your support!

Tinacho.

Join the Chase Challenge - help us win half a million dollars!

Hey Friends,

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

Thanks again! Let's make it a movement!

Tinacho

Inspi(RED) Soccer

On Thursday June 16, we will be hosting a Fundraising tournament, details below: Grassroot Soccer presents: Inspi(RED) Corporate Soccer ournament info packet

Final countdown

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.

GRS HCT: Motherwell

On Wednesday April 27^th, 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.