The townships are where GRS does work

The office we work at in Port Elizabeth is at the Sithembile Primary School located in Zwide. Zwide is one of the many townships around Port Elizabeth. The townships are the place where black, coloured, and Asian people were forced to live during the apartheid era. They are located outside all of the major cities in South Africa. This is where we would be doing all of our work and I could not be more excited.

The first drive from the airport to our Cape Town hotel was our first exposure to the townships. Along the highway you can see tin shacks crammed together for miles in each direction. This was Khayelitsha. The Monday and Tuesday before we left for PE we were able to spend some time here doing work. As part of our training we were taken out to a Skillz tournament that was going on at one sight in Khayelitsha. The focus of the tournament was the girls because it was National Women’s Day in South Africa so we helped run a few games and explain rules to the participants (with a little bit of translation help from the coaches there). The tournament was a success from what we could see with small-sided matches going on in one area and Skillz curriculum games being enjoyed in another. The children are so happy to hang out with us even though I did get mauled by about 20 of them on our way out (I think the video is on YouTube). The field was a large, mostly dirt complex in the middle of one part of the township.

On Tuesday we were able to take a tour of another part of the township. This may sound a bit voyeuristic, but it was actually very cool and good for the community. We were led by a group called Ambitious Youth. They are a group of young men from Khayelitsha who offered us a free tour in order to give us a better understanding of what was goes on everyday in these towns. It was amazing to see how developed the business and lifestyle actually was. From the outside looking in, it just appears as though they are quiet miserable places where people only live and eat. In actuality, there is a lot going on. We first visited a fishery which is where people can get fast-food type stuff. It also had an arcade inside. Next we walked past a bar with pool tables inside and TVs. There are markets all over the place where people can get groceries. All of these are contained within these tin shacks. It is weird for locals seeing a large group of white people walking around, but they know about the tours and seemed to welcome our presence with smiles and greetings. One of the places we visited was a shebeen where some of the elders gather to drink homemade beer and gossip. The whole tour was really amazing and changed my entire perspective on what the townships had to offer. The tour guides from Ambitious Youth were awesome and I would definitely recommend getting in contact with them if anytime is spent in or around Cape Town.

After the tour we went to the main event for the day: a GRS soccer tournament and braai (South African term for barbeque). We met at the CTC ’10 field which was built in honor of a student from Franklin & Marshall University who passed away just before is senior soccer season. Amy Cawley, one of the GRS interns who graduated from F&M, will be spending a lot of time working at that field with orphans and some GRS groups. The field is a beautiful ¾-size field-turf field located at one of the primary schools in Khayelitsha. All the staff and friends were divided up into teams and a fun time was had by all. Kids from the township who caught wind of the soccer events lined the field and cheered us on. We all showed our appreciation by giving away our jerseys. A few local women cooked up some great braai and we concluded with a feast.

Port Elizabeth is actually known to have some of the poorest townships in the country. This is interesting considering the industrial state of the city. GM South Africa, Volkswagen, Continental Tires, Goodyear, Cadbury, Ford (just to name a few) are all located in PE. It is hard to fathom the fact that the unemployment rate is up to 80% in the townships around PE. Nevertheless, the township is always buzzing whenever we are at work.

I have been spending a lot of time driving around so far. I was the only one of the four of us here able to drive a standard, so I have been able to go out anytime someone needs a ride. There are three areas where the Port Elizabeth office runs programs: Zwide, Motherwell, and New Brighton. One of my supervisors, Siya, has been taking Sarah and me to Motherwell each day to ask schools to accept us into their curriculum. Sometimes it is a challenge to convey our ideas and our purpose to the principals of the schools, but with time and patience we usually get our point across. Initially Siya did most of the talking, but after a few schools Srah and I both had our chance to introduce GRS. We usually speak with the Life-Orientation teachers for 12-18 year-olds, and set up times when our coaches can come in and run Skillz interventions with the kids. The schools are very receptive to our proposals and for the most part have accepted us. We visited eight new schools and we will start running programs at seven of these schools this coming week. It seems as though the schools are used to NGOs coming in and making proposals. With a lot of teacher shortages schools are eager to get help from outside sources which we like to capitalize on. I think the teachers and principals recognize that it is important for children to learn about HIV/AIDS and the stigma surrounding it; however, it is a difficult topic to bring up in a school setting. This is why GRS and the Skillz curriculum are so important.

Other than driving around I have been helping out around the office with whatever needs to be done. Sarah and I have been helping keep track of attendance for coaches. They sign an attendance sheet every time they run an intervention and this is how we keep track of how much each coach will get paid. Rosie and Mike stay busy with their jobs and we help them out whenever we can. The coaches are all from the township so they are in the office most days hanging out and waiting for assignments. Every Friday there is a coach development session held where all 41 coaches in the area get together at the office to go over developments in the program and anything else that needs to be covered. The first week we went over a contract for a coach’s code of conduct which they got to design for themselves. Last week we celebrated Women’s month by playing netball and soccer together. Having the coaches around all the time is great because they are all so nice. They teach us random things about the town and recommend cool places to hang out. They have also been teaching us Xhosa (pronounced “click-osa). This is the main language spoke amongst black people in the townships. It is one of the nine national languages in South Africa. So far we have got “molo” which means “hello” and “unjani” which means “how are you”. It is tough to get the clicks down because it’s not very natural, and Bere, one of the coaches, told us there are about 85 different click sounds. We will work at it though.

Working in the township is awesome and is really what I was hoping to do when this whole thing started. It is just great to work right where all the kids spend their day. Anytime I want I can usually go outside into the courtyard with a soccer ball and kick it around with little kids. They run a Skillz Street League at Sithembile too so I’ve been able to take part in running that. There is one really cool spot in Zwide where we like to catch lunch. It’s a butchery where you go inside and get a certain type and amount of meat, possibly a loaf of bread, and drinks; then you go around back where there are guys with a braai set up that will cook the meat up for you. It’s greasy and delicious! The township is full of energy with so many schools. There are also mini-bus taxis flying all over the place that definitely don’t follow traffic laws, making driving an adventure. The townships are extremely poor, but it makes you wonder what people need to get by and keep a good mindset. Though there is good reason to be negative in such surroundings, the vibe I get whenever we are at work is a positive one. Through the energy of the kids and the enthusiasm of the coaches it seems like we will be surrounded by a lot of optimism this year. The townships definitely have downfalls too as we have read in the paper and heard at work: a corrupt cop got shot and a fight that ended in a stabbing. There are also huge problems with drugs and crime which make for sketchy surroundings at night. All this being said, I feel lucky to be able to work in Zwide every morning. I will never forget the drive from the airport to the hotel that first morning as we passed by Khayelitsha. By the time I leave South Africa next year, it will be hard to imagine the initial impression I had of what the townships would be like.

And you will be spending the next year of your life in...

The whole first week built up to where each of us would be assigned and what jobs we would be doing. It is important for the South African staff to get to know us before they assign us to a place where we will be working for the entire year. This is why they keep us in the dark for so long. It was something hanging over our heads since we accepted the job and we would finally find out Friday night. We went to Bill’s house and played a huge game of soccer before the assignments were revealed. Originally we were told there would be three people in Kimberley, eleven in Cape Town, five in Port Elizabeth, three in Zambia, two in Malawi, and two in Namibia. The day of the unveiling we found out there would also be one traveling to a refugee camp near the border of Zimbabwe and two people traveling to Lesotho, a completely land locked kingdom within the borders of South Africa.

Tannis, one of the interns who had been working for GRS in Cape Town for the summer, was the one to reveal the assignments. Finally the information was released and I was assigned to work in the programs department in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Port Elizabeth (PE) is located about 800km east of Cape Town along the southern coast of South Africa. There would be one other girl, Sarah, working with me in programs. Rosie was assigned to operations in the PE office, and Mike was assigned the task of Monitoring & Evaluation in PE. The four of us will be living together for the next year in PE.

It was a great relief for everyone to find out their positions and placements whether they had expected them or not. There were a few surprises, but regardless, it seemed as though each of us was excited to embark on our year long adventure. The relief made for a good night out in Cape Town on Friday. We also had a relaxed weekend with the freedom to explore the city and no GRS commitments. Saturday we watched the big Rugby match between the Springboks and Australia. The Springboks are the South African national Rugby team. Sunday a group of us hiked Table Mountain. We scaled up the backside where Skeleton Gorge emerges out of the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Once we reached the top and had enjoyed our well deserved view, we descended down toward the city through Platteklip Gorge. The weekend was full of great weather and fun! Within three days we would be leaving for PE with a lot of work ahead of us.

Cape Town Training and Orientation

Training in Cape Town started off with a “Resiliency Race” bright and early Monday morning. The race was a scavenger hunt organized so that we could orient ourselves with the different areas of Cape Town as well as learn a little bit about the local culture. We had to take pictures, complete tasks, and finish our adventure with a presentation in front of the other interns and a panel of judges from the office. Even though our team did not win we had a great time!

Tuesday morning marked the beginning of formal training sessions. The sessions were set-up like class in a conference room in the hotel where we were staying. The first day was all about GRS’s curriculum which has been branded SKILLZ. The curriculum is full of tools including games and information which coaches use during interventions with children. There are four components to Skillz: Skillz core, Skillz tournaments, Skillz Street, and Skillz holiday camps.
The Skillz core is a seven week program that kids go through composed of eight 45-minute sessions. This is where coaches pass-on knowledge and confidence to kids through games.
Skillz tournaments, or voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) tournaments, are one day tournaments held to promote GRS and its curriculum. Teams get points depending on their results, but they also get points for good sportsmanship and getting tested. In between games teams do activities from the Skillz core.
Skillz Street is another tool used by GRS to promote good sportsmanship and HIV/AIDS education. It is a street soccer league where kids referee themselves and learn to make fair decisions. Education is also involved before and after the matches.
Skillz holiday camps are similar to the Skillz core but presented over a week during school holidays.
Skillz is also the name of the magazine that GRS uses to reach the masses. The magazines are placed in local newspapers quarterly. They include games, information, articles about famous soccer players, and more. They are useful for helping kids communicate with their families which is important considering the topic is quite taboo in the communities. SKILLZ is a brand name that Nike has helped GRS come up with so that GRS is easily recognized in the communities. All the coaches wear bright yellow or blue shirts with Skillz written across the front when they are coaching.
Tuesday was the best day in my opinion because we learned the core of what GRS is all about. We got to see footage of interventions and meet the actual coaches doing work on the ground. We got to see GRS from the perspective of an outsider, a 14 yr-old participant, and a 24 yr-old Skillz coach. Xolani, Avuyo, Tami and Gcina, some of the coaches around Cape Town, ran most of the day as well as Taylor Ahlgren, the head of curriculum and curriculum development.

On Wednesday we got to meet Bill Miles, the COO of Grassrooot Soccer. This day was all about Business Development, Marketing, and Communications. F4 (standing for “Football for an HIV Free Generation) is a huge business initiative from GRS and partners to make a difference. Some of the partners include Lovelife, the Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation, USAID, Nike, PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), and a few others. It was very interesting to learn about where GRS gets all of the money to run the Skillz curriculum. Over the last year GRS has doubled in size within these branches of Business and the development of the organization. Through a “strategic alliance” (as they worded it) with FIFA, GRS has been able to take a huge part in the 20 centers for 2010. One of the Football for Hope centers will be located in Khayelitsha which is the township outside of Cape Town. GRS will run/host this center for FIFA. Nineteen other centers will be erected all over Africa in time for the World Cup next year. The purpose of the centers is to create a community center for kids with counseling and testing centers, a field, and resources for children to do schoolwork. The opening of the Khayelitsha center will be on December 5th, the day after the world cup draw.
There were two more programs GRS works on for marketing including the ambassador program and the Sony Ticket Fund. GRS Ambassadors are individuals of celebrity status that work for GRS at an intervention or a training of coaches and help to promote the organization. The Sony Ticket Fund is the coolest thing. Sony has donated 15,000 World Cup tickets to GRS in order to bring local kids from the townships to the games next year. This is extremely exciting and will make many kids very happy.

Wednesday and Thursday we also learned a lot about the Monitoring and Evaluation side of GRS. This is the group that takes down all of the data for GRS from interventions. It is important for NGOs to prove their ideas are working in order to get more grants and data is the best way to do this. Zak Kauffman is the head of M&E. Him and his team, including a few of the interns, are doing a great job getting information from interventions and coming up with new ideas on how to organize all of the data. This is an important wing of GRS as the organization grows and progresses into the future.

Thursday and Friday we learned a lot about general operations and policy of GRS. As a group from the office deliberated over our placements we had a few miscellaneous presentations relating to the topics of South Africa and HIV. One was from a public affairs representative from the US Embassy who spoke about safety in the country and how the consulates can help if we get into trouble. We had a presentation about Gender and HIV from a professor of Gender Studies. The last presentation was about the biology of HIV and AIDS from Dr. Kevin Rebe.

All in all training was very tiring, but incredibly informative. I have to thanks Ryan Janks, the head of interns, for putting this all together in such a smooth fashion. Also was to thank Tannis who was a great help to Ryan. Thank you to all those who gave presentations and helped us all week!

Skillz Kilo!!!

Arrival in Cape Town

The trip started off with a bang when my initial flight out of Boston to JFK got delayed three hours. This meant I would definitely miss my connector to London-Heathrow. Fortunately, there was a scheduled twelve-hour lay-over in London and our nice travel agents at Raptim Travel were able to get me on a later flight out of New York without having to reschedule my flight from London to South Africa. I happened to run into another group of the interns at Terminal 5 in Heathrow and we played games and shared stories until our departure.

After twelve hours I was ready to get off the plane when we landed in Cape Town. A representative from the Best Western picked us up in a shuttle from the airport and brought us to our hotel in the city. Our thirty-minute drive along the highway took us past the townships and suburbs of Cape Town. The townships are where a lot of black South Africans live and work. These are very poor areas with an extremely dense arrangement of houses made from paper and sheet metal. The townships go on for miles and this is where we do a lot of our work (more info on this to come).

We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of our hotel with its spacious rooms, a pool, a restaurant, and a pub. This is where we would spend the next ten days living out of our bags and learning all that GRS has to offer.