Today, I was looking over my blog posts, and I realized I never gave a full overview of the programming that takes place out of the Football For Hope Centre. So, I am going to take a moment to give a quick summary to each programme.
The programmes out of the Football For Hope Centre fall into two categories: Football For Hope Centre programmes and Grassroot Soccer programmes.
Below is a summary of the Grassroot Soccer Programmes:
1. Skillz Street is a 5-week girls-targeted intervention for kids ages 10-14. The primary goal of Skillz Street is to empower young girls and teach them about life skills and HIV prevention. Females are at a higher risk than males to be infected with HIV for biological and cultural reasons. Skillz Street aims to induce behavioral change among girls so that they avoid risky decisions such as having relationships with older partners, or having sex without a condom. We run Skillz Street interventions at two sites at any one time, and there are about 100 girls at each site (although we just started an intervention with 200 girls!). One of the sites for Skillz Street is the Football For Hope Centre, and we recruit girls from 3 local schools. It is nice for the girls to be integrated with other local girls their age and meet new people. During practice 1, the girls are split into teams of 10-12 and assigned 2 coaches. They stay in these teams for the duration of the intervention and it is amazing to see how close they get with their teammates and coaches by the end! During lesson 7, testing partners come to the centre and test the participants (with consent). It is an amazing day where the coaches are constantly doing energizers to make the girls feel empowered to know their HIV status. I have seen two HCT practices, and I saw girls raising their arms and singing as they went into the pre-counseling room. I spend most of my time working on Skillz Street with Vuyo, the Community Project Coordinator. It is incredibly rewarding!
2. Skillz 1.1 is the core GRS curriculum that targets primary school children. There are 9 practices in the curriculum, and each one has a different theme (i.e. Avoiding Risks, My Supporters...) that teaches the kids about life skills and HIV prevention. Each practice starts with an energizer and a discussion of the primary theme. But, the majority of the practice involves a specially designed GRS activity that involves soccer or some other active component. Through the activity, an important message about HIV prevention is brought to the surface. The lesson ends with the coaches fostering discussion around this message. Again, over time, the relationships between the coaches and the participants become very strong, and they become role models and important figures to the kids. I have heard repeatedly from coaches that kids from years ago continue to keep in touch and use them as a resource if they need advice or help.
3. Generation Skillz is the newest curriculum that targets high school students. Generation Skillz covers similar issues as Skillz 1.1, but delves deeper into gender equality and gender-based violence issues. It offers more time for discussion, while still involving soccer-based activities. GRS launched this curriculum in response to recent research coming out of South Africa. Specifically, data from the Medical Research Council survey revealed that 28% of men in South Africa disclosed having ever raped a woman. Generation Skillz aims to offer a safe space to high schoolers to discuss these issues and induce behavioral change among local youth.
4. Skillz Holiday Programmes are week-long camps that GRS runs while the kids have vacation from school. I was able to attend my first Skillz Holiday Programme October 3-7, and it was a lot of fun (however, it is anything but a holiday for GRS employees - we had to get up at 6:00 am every day!). The Holiday Programmes are great because they reach a lot of kids at once, and they offer the kids a fun activity to do while they are on break from school.
The Football For Hope Centre programmes are supported by GRS funding, but the curriculum is not developed by GRS. The programmes below were started in response to specific local needs.
1. Inkazimlo is a youth outreach group with about 20-30 members from ages 16-27. This tight-knit group does outreach trips about twice a month to give back to the community and promote self-empowerment. They also help out with the Literacy Programme (more to come on that programme!), and hold debates.
2. The Literacy Programme is in its pilot stage, and is run by Andrew, my fellow Programs intern. There are about 30-40 participants from a local primary school. The Literacy Programme meets twice a week and works on improving the kids' mathematical and English skills.
3. The Preschool Programme is also a newer programme and meets in the mornings three days a week. There are 150 (!) students in the programme from 8 local schools. The programme helps the kids transition into primary school and offers them a fun environment in which to play games and be outside.
4. Community League is a soccer league with more than 1000 (!!) players. There are five age divisions that range from U-11 to over 30. The Community League runs most nights of the week and all day on Saturday and Sunday. It is a great way to get kids and adults off the street and participating in a healthy activity, as well as connecting them to the Centre if they need a safe space to go.
5. Development Courses are run once a month and they are only held for the GRS coaches. The Development Courses help the staff at the Centre offer extra services to the coaches - such as interview or CV-writing advice to help them transition out of their coaching position and move on to more profitable and career-focused jobs!
Hope this is helpful, pictures to come!
