One of the most important programs Grassroot Soccer runs is our HCT Tournament. An HIV Counseling and Testing tournament unites all aspects of our organization into one crazy day of GRS fun. September 29th marks another one of these tournaments. This is a day where we welcome members of the Kimberley community to participate in soccer and GRS activities, watch from the sidelines, and test for HIV to accomplish the ever-important feat of knowing your status.
Thanks New Start!
For this particular HCT we held both a boys and girls tournament where 10 boys teams fought it out, while only 2 girls teams played for victory. For our next HCT we hope to have more girls teams, come on ladies! While some teams played, and the Kim Staff ran around preparing lunch, sorting out the schedule, and taking care of logistics, Skillz Coaches ushered their teams to the HIV testing area. New Start Bloemfontein, our faithful testing partner, set up tents where they would start and finish the HIV testing and counseling process. By the end of the day they tested 204 members of the Kim community, including soccer players, GRS coaches, GRS staff and interns, and any one else who was around and felt it was time to "Know the Game"- to know their status.
Here's a clip of two of the boys teams!
And here are the 2 girls teams!
The Kimberley Stars ended up taking the championship for the boys side, and FNB won their match for the girls. Along with other prizes like cleats and gear, the champions now have their team's name engraved on this beautiful trophy (seen below), courtesy of Trophy & Gift Centre in Kimberley. Thanks to the guys at this shop, New Start, the LFA (coaches association) for organizing teams, and Eskort for donating food, the GRS KimTeam was able to hold another successful HCT Tournament.
Kimberley Stars - Champions! (With GRS Kim site coordinator, Thuso Jones)
With every program, every intervention, every activity, and every individual tested for HIV, Grassroot Soccer is one step closer to achieving our goal of an HIV free generation. Let's keep up the good work as we move into another month of interventions, graduations, and all the behind-the-scenes labor that goes into this great GRS site every day. Kimba love all the way.
To finish off the crazy month of September, GRS Kim held two simultaneous Skillz Holiday camps in Roodepan. Skillz Holiday is one of the very special programs we run where our coaches work with the kids for an entire week, complete all the practices, and graduate the learners on the last day. This method creates an intimate environment that builds strong relationships between coach and learner in a short amount of time.
"Sky Ball" with Coach Fire at Roodepan Primary
After weeks of preparation by our staff and our two camp directors - shout out to Coach Neo and Coach Lorato! - which involved recruiting schools and children, prepping materials,
securing food, and organizing coaches, the interventions took off in lightning
fashion.Our Generation Skillz
intervention was implemented at Pescodia Secondary School and Skillz 1.2 spent the
week at Roodepan Primary.Running
two different programs stretched our team mentally and physically but we pulled together for a triumphant week.
The picture below shows two learners participating in one of our great activities that utilizes soccer to educate the kids about risky behaviors. In "Breakaway from HIV" two kids line up behind two cones, one placed ahead of the other. During the first round the striker, who is in front, does not have a ball, which represents abstinence. The coach blows the whistle once, releasing the striker, then twice, releasing the defender, or HIV. The second round gives the striker one ball, or one mutually faithful partner, and the third round sees the striker with two balls, or multiple sexual partners. By the third round it is very difficult for the striker to reach his goal without getting tagged by the defender, illustrating how difficult it is to avoid HIV when having sex with more than one partner.
Kids at Pescodia during "Breakaway from HIV"
The video below shows one of the groups at Pescodia Secondary doing the activity, "HIV Limbo". In this exercise the kids are told that the string represents HIV and if you cannot limbo under it then you are pretend infected with the virus. For the first round they pretend they are abstaining from sex and the string is relatively easy to limbo under. The second round they pretend they have a sexual partner that is their same age and the string is lowered slightly. The third round the string represents a partner that is 5 years older, and the fourth round a partner that is ten years older. The string is lowered each round so it becomes harder and harder to avoid hitting the string, and consequently harder and harder to avoid being infected with (pretend) HIV. The key message of this practice is explained following the activity, and makes it clear to the learners that abstaining is the safest way to avoid HIV, though if you chose to have sex, it is less dangerous to have a partner that is your same age rather than an older partner. Great activity and the kids clearly love it!
Our final numbers for the week were 68 graduates from Roodepan and 90 from Pescodia. Big Kilos go to our camp directors, coaches, and staff for overcoming obstacles, staying positive and energetic, and rising to the challenge to come out on top. Many snaps for GRS Kim!
More to come about the HCT we held this past Saturday, so much ayobaness in Kimbaaaa.
The past two weeks have been packed with full day sessions at GRS Kimba. After selecting our new coaches we welcomed two very special visitors from Cape Town who led our ToC (Training of Coaches). Jamison (Jmo) and Derek (Mr. D) worked with our staff in Kim and held a week-long training for the new guys and gals. The fresh batch consists of 17 coaches from Kimberley and 2 from Danielskuil that were trained in the program Skillz 1.2, a pilot curriculum based on our bread and butter Skillz 1.1.
New coaches, staff, and interns on the last day
The week was a sight to see as the Curriculum team worked their magic on an eager group of Kim-Folk. There was loads of dancing, singing, learning, teaching, more singing, eating braai, more teaching, and teaching-back. The days were long but with the help of each and every person at GRS Kim we made it a huge success. Big ups to our guests, Mr. D and Jmo, for keeping the lessons fresh, exciting, and truly enlightening for us all. Reflecting on the week has been satisfying as the whole team is excited about the potential this new group brings to the table. Snaps!
The video below shows one of our new coaches, Samkelo, teaching-back the activity "Breakaway from HIV". Well done SK!
Tough team challenge, took a while but they finally got it!
Then new blood mixed with old for the first time last week as we had yet another visitor from Cape Town. Danika, a social worker brought on by GRS to lead coaches in wellness development sessions, graced us with her presence for the week. She took the coaches through team-building activities for two full days as well as one full day of child protection and disclosure work with the entire Kim staff. We learned important lessons on how to handle a child that approaches you with a serious problem and what appropriate and necessary steps we must take to address the issue. The team, staff and coaches alike, grew as a whole as we conquered various frustrations and soared on clouds of fun and success.
The KimTeam would like to give a huge KIIIIILLLLOOOOOOOO to our Capetonian friends for all their hard work and for taking the time to visit and help improve our wonderful site here in the great city of Kimberley.
BIG BIG things coming up next week with Skillz Holiday running Monday through Friday and another HCT on Saturday the 29th. Check back soon to find out more and follow our twitter (@GRSKimberley) to get more frequent updates about the amazing things happening in Kim!
***In honor of the new blog, we are kicking off the first week of September with a spotlight on our coaches that have done exemplary work in August. Without further ado, spotlight #4 below***
Comments from coaches and staff about Neo include-
"always there"
"high energy"
"good teammate"
*****Neo has been awarded this spotlight for excellent work during August.*****
***In honor of the new blog, we are kicking off the first week of September with a spotlight on our coaches that have done exemplary work in August. Without further ado, spotlight #3 below***
Lo going to meet her team at an HIV Counseling & Testing Soccer Tournament at Sweepers Ground.
Comments from coaches and staff about Lorato include-
"hard worker"
"consistent"
"works well with other coaches"
*****Lorato has been awarded this spotlight for excellent work during August.*****
***In honor of the new blog, we will be kicking off the first week of September with a spotlight on our coaches that have done exemplary work in August. Without further ado, spotlight #2 below***
Sonko running a pre test for Skillz 1.1
Comments from coaches and staff about Sonko include-
"he is someone you can rely on"
"always on time"
"never complains"
*****Sonko has been awarded this spotlight for excellent work during August.*****
***In honor of the new blog, we will be kicking off the first week of September with a spotlight on our coaches that have done exemplary work in August. Without further ado, spotlight #1 below***
Boetie B front and center going over the rules at an HCT Soccer Tournament in Danielskuil
Comments from coaches and staff about Boetie B include-
"he takes charge"
"if there is a problem with a teacher he will talk to them to work things out"
"brings high energy for the children"
*****Boetie B has been awarded this spotlight for excellent work during August.*****
***With our new Kimberley blog underway, we will be starting to run a "Coach Spotlight" section. Coaches will be chosen based on their work performance and will interviewed for the blog. In honor of our wonderful coaches, we will kick off the first week of September (4-8) with a new coach spotlight each day. After the first week we will provide spotlights biweekly or monthly to reward our hardest working coaches.***
GRS Kim is sad to be saying bye to some of our great Skillz coaches in the coming months, and we wish them only the best in their future endeavors. However! We held a group interview for 25 of our favorite applicants this past Monday, and we were extremely pleased with the outcome. Two separate sessions saw groups of 12 and 13 men and women interact with our staff in a fun and open environment.
We kicked off with a few energizers to get the juices flowing and a name game that revealed some monster senses of humor. These activities showed the team the people who aren't afraid to be embarrassed and those who have the energy and enthusiasm to stand up in front of a classroom and engage with the kids. We then asked the candidates some questions that gave them the chance to impart their understanding of the importance of sport in their community and their knowledge about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A few of the group members related personal stories regarding either topic and revealed to the staff how open they are about some sensitive subjects.
After the questions we broke the group into three smaller groups and presented the individuals with different scenarios that they had to write out solutions for and present to their group. An example of one scenario is, "As a
youth mentor, your players will see you as a safe, knowledgeable, and
trustworthy friend.How would you
handle a situation in which a player disclosed a serious problem and asked you
for help? (eg: story of rape, family member that recently contracted HIV)." After the individual presents his or her solution the smaller group bounces other ideas off each other, creating an open dialogue about potential challenges as a GRS coach. This activity allowed our staff to observe how these guys and gals would confront obstacles in the field and it certainly produced some standouts.
The larger group then came back together and discussed the activity and a final challenge was introduced for the group to solve as a team. We presented them with the Survivor Challenge where their plane crashes, they are isolated on an island, and they have to come up with the 10 most important things they want to have with them. This activity distinguished the leaders from the followers. After a closing circle with a few more energizers, we bid our candidates farewell and were energized ourselves by the amount of potential we saw in the two groups.
The KimTeam met the next day to discuss our favorites and selected 18 to be trained as GRS Skillz coaches for the next 2 years, exciting!! Stay tuned to see how they're doing and look out for the coach spotlights being posted soon!
Last Saturday the 18th of August, GRS Kimberley hosted an HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT) tournament at Sweeper's Ground. We welcomed boys and girls teams spanning from ages 14 to 19 who battled for victory over the course of seven hours. Before playing, in between games, or after getting knocked out of contention, GRS staff, coaches, and interns ushered teams to the testing area where New Start HIV Counseling and Testing Centre staff tested 233 Kimberley youth for HIV. A day filled with GRS energizers, activities, HIV discussions, lots of football, food, and testing to know our status, GRS Kimberley is happy with the day's success and looks forward to the next HCT. Stay tuned for updates and help us break 300 tested! Know your status so you can lead a healthy life no matter what. Here are some pictures from the event:
New interns Eric and Nora at Radio Teemaneng advertising the HCT
The girls in action
Coach Bucs encouraging his team from the sideline
Coach K speaking during the final ceremony
Check out our new twitter @GRSKimberley and follow us to be informed on all the great work our coaches and staff do every day. Peace and Kilos! GRS KimTeam
