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!!!