May the Conversations Continue

Saturday was our very first VCT or HCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing or HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing) tournaments. It was an awesome opportunity for me to get to know some of the Bloem coaches that I will be working with over the year. Getting an understanding of their names and remembering names with faces will definitely present its own challenge. Out of 12 coaches I think I know T-bo, Sam, Azania, Glad (awesome name, I think they create names for us to be able to remember them), Chief, and Playa. Halfway there, I guess that is better than I thought.

Now back to the HCT. The tournament itself went really well; however, we faced our first failure because the testing partner never showed up. It was really great for the kids to have an opportunity to get out and play, but the purpose of the HCT for us is to get people tested. Going out there we had a goal of 300 people and due to the lack of a tester, no one was tested. Mandla was pissed. I guess the Bloem team is awesome at putting together activities and organizing the soccer and curriculum type things as well as awesome at delivery because of their energy and enthusiasm, but they are no so good at following up with testing partners. This is one of the places I am going to have to step in from here on out. Our testing partner is New Start and they also said they were double booked and picked the other event, so I am not sure we can blame it entirely on planning malfunction; it sounds to me just like our first encounter with how things work here in Africa. It’s all right now because we are having them go over to one of the universities in Bloem and do some counseling and testing.

On a positive note, we did get the opportunity to deliver the curriculum and run some SKILLZ activities during the tournament. Throughout the day the coaches would pull the teams that were in between games and take them through Risk Field and My Supporters. The key messages for Risk Field are “Getting HIV can have serious consequences for ourselves, our families and friends, and our whole community” and “You can Build Your Team and use your communication and decision making skills to help you abstain from sex or to practice safe sexual behaviors.” The key messages associated with My Supporters are “in life, everyone needs supporters,” “stigma and discrimination cause people living with HIV to feel alone and helpless,” and “support people living with HIV and teach others to do the same.” So at least the conversations continue, which is a big part of what we are all about. Also in my mind the tournament provided a healthy safe outlet for the kids and a place where they can have fun, without getting caught up by negative influences that exist everywhere but especially in townships. So I think overall it was a success on a few levels and now we know there are some things we have to make sure we get done for future HCTs. Next up HCT Kim.