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.