COACH SPOTLIGHT: ISAAC

COACH SPOTLIGHT: CLEO

June HCT

New Start HIV Counselors and Testers

On Saturday, June 29^th, GRS Kimberley ran an HIV Counseling & Testing Tournament (HCT) in the Colville community.

This was to be a smaller HCT than those we have run in the past. Our goal for this tournament was to target first-time testers rather than continuing to test participants who have played in previous HCTs. With the help of our ever-supportive partner, the LFA, we set our sights on Colville and recruited 8 teams from the area.

The day of the event ran more smoothly than any HCT we have held in Kim. Thanks to another strong partnership with The Sandwich Shop, lunch was flawless, and everybody ate his or her fill. The teams quickly transitioned on and off the field, ushered by their coaches, both from the LFA and Grassroot Soccer. Our Skillz coaches held discussions with their teams about testing for HIV, the challenges and stigma surrounding testing, and the importance of knowing your status.

The day saw an exciting amount of talent from the young men of Colville with Zone 5 and Zone 1 surviving to battle it out in the final. After a long day of football, the teams did not disappoint. Fighting to the finish, Zone 5 came out with the 3-1 win. Congratulations Zone 5! KILO!

Zone 5, June HCT Champs with their GRS Coaches

Another important number to report, as always, is the number of participants and community members who tested for HIV. New Start Bloemfontein, never ceasing to help in our shared cause, arrived ready and able to test upwards of 200 people. Unfortunately, since this was a smaller tournament, our numbers were not quite as high as we hoped and we only tested 120. However, much like our attitude towards our lower numbers for the Holiday camps, this 120 means more than past, higher numbers. The majority of these 120 people who braved the stigma and tested their blood for HIV, were doing so for the very first time. This is quality over quantity, and this is what we, as an organization and a community, need more of!

Our Skillz Coaches deserve a major TLC (Tell it, Label it, Celebrate it) for their hard work, their positive influence, for continuing to be game-changers in their community, and for doing their ayoba job to get players and Colville residents to the tents! SNAPS!

GRS Kim Welcomes New Member

Our team in Kimberley is excited to announce a new member to our staff at our New Park office. Olebogeng (Lebo) Ntong joins us as an Office Administrator. I (Nora, Kimberley Intern) asked Lebo to answer a few questions and establish his place in our family in writing!

Q: What made you want to join GRS?

A: I was mainly drawn by the overwhelming and humbling role that GRS plays in our society. I have always wanted to contribute towards the betterment of youth in my country and GRS provided just the perfect opportunity for me.

Q: What is your role with GRS?

A: As an OA I am responsible for the site’s bookkeeping, HR and Office Administration in general, and providing support to the Site Coordinator.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your job so far?

A: Working with a dedicated team towards a common cause is almost unsurpassed enjoyment. Knowing that everything I do is going a long way to change or save somebody’s life is the most rewarding and enjoyable part of my job.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do outside of work? A: I like watching Soccer and Movies, I am thinking of taking golf lessons here in the Big Hole.

Q: And as we ask all our team members, what is your favorite soccer team?
A: Locally Kaizer Chiefs (Reclaiming the Glory), abroad it will have to be Chelsea. 

June Skillz Holiday Camps

Coach Isaac leading his favorite energizer

June continued to be a hectic but productive month as the Kim-Team ran two Skillz Holiday camps in the community of Homevale.

With the schools right down the street from each other, Venus Primary and Homevale Primary proved very convenient locations for these camps. After recruiting the schools and completing all the necessary preparations, our coaches and staff were ready to work with kids over the school break and ensure they stayed safe and learned some invaluable life skills.

Coaches Seno and Fire leading Breakaway from HIV

After the first 2 days of the camps we realized our numbers were not going to be where we had originally hoped. Each camp had around 50 participants, about half of what we aimed for. We continued with the camps and our team did everything in their power to retain the learners for the remainder of the week and persuade them to bring their friends. Unfortunately by the end of the week, our numbers remained low, graduating a total of 105 from the two camps.

This Holiday camp experience sparked an interesting debate among our team members. As an NGO, Grassroot Soccer is always striving for growth and development as we simultaneously strive to develop communities. As much as we want and need to reach certain numbers, or targets, at the end of the day the quality of the work we do is paramount. And the quality of these Holiday camps was tangible. The class-size was smaller and that meant more attention was paid to each and every participant. There was a collective feeling of accomplishment among coaches and staff who were present at the camps. The kids were always having a good time, and they truly seemed to grasp the information brought to them by our coaches.

Coach Jeanine during Free Play Soccer

If we value quality over quantity, like any social development organization should, then these camps were a major success. Our team did an amazing job and we are very proud of our coaches for bringing their passion and energy into the classroom and onto the field each and every day. 

Skillz Street Training!

Female staff and coaches after Team Handball

The month of June kicked off with a bang as the lovely ladies of the Kimberley site came together for a week-long Training of Coaches (ToC).

Our Program Coordinator, Thembi Seeku, was joined by Skillz Street Coordinator, Rebecca Hershow (Ribs), who traveled from Cape Town to co-facilitate the training.

The week was a huge success as we trained 14 Kimberley coaches and welcomed 3 coaches from a partner organization in Richmond. That means 17 young women are now armed and ready to empower females of all ages, but especially the youth of their communities.

Grassroot Soccer’s Skillz Street curriculum is perhaps our most unique program. It targets females and addresses all issues related to the health and well-being of girls and women. This includes everything from reproductive health and rights, family planning, saying “NO” and meaning it, and goal-setting to learning how to pass, dribble, and shoot a soccer ball, and playing some competitive soccer matches! The interventions each last for 2 weeks and consist of 11 practices including an HIV Counseling & Testing soccer tournament as Practice 8.

Now that the ToC is behind us, our team will take the skills and lessons learned from the week straight into the classroom as schools reopen mid-July. Young ladies of Kimberley, get ready for an exciting, no-boys-allowed program coming to schools for the remainder of 2013. 

Coach Billarocks on Her Travels

I enjoyed going around in different parts of Germany and learning about the history of the country as well. I mostly enjoyed going to the South African embassy and meeting our ambassador.

I had a language barrier because most people were not familiar with English so communication was a problem. It’s a good thing we had Darina there with us for the first two weeks because she could help with the translation and she helped us get around Germany as if it was not our first time there.

I enjoyed my internship at the Rheinflanke. I learned many things from the staff. I was going around in different communities and learning how one community was different from the other. I enjoyed seeing how the organisation works with each community to address the different challenges their kids were facing.

I also enjoyed meeting the team – Nino, Caro and Dennis just to name a few.

I loved meeting kids from different backgrounds and listening to their stories, especially the ones who had a violent type of background and how they planned to turn around their lives after meeting the team at Rheinflanke, and it was all because of the time they spend playing soccer with the team and talking to them individually. I love what the Rheinflanke team does to help these kids turn their lives around, trying to find them job opportunities and helping them with their CVs. I love how the small children only go there to have fun and how the team provides their time and give them toys to play with. I also learned that this helps keep the children safe and out of trouble.

I also had a language problem at my internship and it was even more difficult because Darina was not there to help translate. I even tried logging onto the organisation’s website but everything was written in German. Even most of the kids we worked with could not speak English so this was a challenge for me.

My only wish is that I could have done more and also showed what I was doing here at home. One suggestion is to involve the person and give them a day so that they can show you how they work back home because maybe you can also learn a thing or two.