MARCH HCT MADNESS!

Congrats to Hope United for another big win!

With interventions running smoothly in 12 schools between Kimberley and Danielskuil, the Kim-­Team set their eyes on an epic HCT for the 23rd of March.

Our goal was to start early this time around and that meant securing teams, venue, food, sound, testing partners, and most importantly, getting the word out and mobilizing the Kimberley community. Some of our site staff and interns hit the streets of Kimba with a hefty stack of HCT Posters, pitching our cause and selling our story to shop-­owners, taxi drivers, and anyone that would listen. After hours of awkwardly tearing tape and having quirky conversations with eager Kimfolk, we were happy with our mobilizing efforts for the moment. We soon moved on to locking down dates with Radio Teemaneng, our local radio partner, to broadcast news about our upcoming HCT across the Kimberley airwaves. We visited our good friend Malik Kau the Friday before the HCT and the Saturday morning of the Tournament. One of the Kimterns, Nora, who is in charge of communications, brought one of our CPC’s and three of our coaches (K, Billarocks, Lerato, Tshebo) to share their knowledge on the radio and advocate the importance of Knowing Your Status. As a final push to mobilize our community the entire KimTeam was unleashed onto the streets of Galeshewe on the Friday before the big day. For about 2 hours our crew stopped people in their tracks, knocked on doors, and handed out fliers to make sure we motivated as many people as possible to come to our event, enjoy the great football and music, and most importantly to test for HIV.

It turned out that all our time and commitment that went in to ensuring that this HCT was one for the books definitely paid off. After overcoming field challenges on the day of (no, we do not have a Nike Center, or a FFHC), the HCT ran smoothly with an incredible turnout from not only our teams – 12 out of 12 boys teams and 3 out of 4 girls teams pitched, our best showing to date – but also from the Galeshewe community. The Local Football Association is ever supportive of our programs and our cause and was essential in maximizing our efficiency on the day. We owe them a huge Kimba Kilo for their cooperation and continued support for everything Grassroot Soccer! Another gigantic kilo goes to our testing partners, New Start Bloemfontein, who never disappoint us with their determination to test as many people as they can. They have recently implemented new restrictions for the amount of people tested per tester, and thus, had to leave early after reaching this threshold. However, with hours to spare they tested 242 members of the Kimmunity – who knows what we could have accomplished together if we made use of the whole day!

Violet, a councilor and tester from New Start!

Our team in Kim is very proud of our consistent HCT success. We are eager to see how we can improve in all current areas while pushing the boundaries of our creativity into new ones for future HCTs.