Last week I highlighted the accomplishments of my Peace Corps training group in light of our work as defined by and reported to Peace Corps. Numbers of people reached in specific topics, however, only shares a small portion of our story.
One of my favorite things about the Healthy Youth program in Lesotho, is that each volunteer’s job responsibilities and activities are unique to their site. As a result, we worked in a number of areas, some overlapping and some unique to only one or two of us. Here is a sampling of the work that filled our days:
Health
Worked in a clinic to increase ARV adherence and infant wellness checks
Weighed infants and worked with Village Health Workers in an outreach clinic
Started a growth monitoring and intervention program at an orphanage
Worked with three HIV+ Teen Clubs
Youth Development
Directed 6 overnight camps serving more than 425 girls and boys in six of Lesotho’s ten districts
Started and led Youth Clubs in Athletics, Gender Empowerment, Drawing, Games, English, and English Reading
PCV Stephanie and colleagues show off the produce at the orphanage she worked with. Photo provided by Stephanie Sales.
Income Generation to Support Families and OVCs
Two community-based sewing businesses
A farm including water accessibility for an orphanage
Started three chicken projects
An achaar project
Fenced a farm and orchard to protect product from cattle
Advised five agricultural co-operatives
Helped a women’s and girl’s weaving group with marketing and market development
Community Engagement
Planned and led four World AIDS Day events including talent shows, voluntary HIV testing,
Built a multi-purpose athletic court for one of Lesotho’s largest towns
Planned and led a Spread the Love, Not the Disease Valentine’s Day event with over 100 youth participants enjoying face painting, nutrition and fitness info, yoga, HIV testing, and Planned Parenthood
Hosted a large HIV awareness, testing, and education day for youth
Built a Community Building with a children’s library
Worked with Caregiver and OVC Support groups in four communities; building the capacity of caregivers
Led a father’s support group through the Red Cross
Built small greenhouses with families and provided nutrition and gardening lessons to build food security
Education
PCV Eloise's students at the Khotsong Skills Training Center, a tertiary school. Photo provided by Eloise Williams
Started computer labs at 2 tertiary schools
Worked with a school to help it get internet access for students and teachers
Taught primary school classes in Life Skills, English & Creative Writing, and Dance
Taught Life Skills in secondary schools
Taught at 3 tertiary institutions
Lesotho 82 Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts at a workshop.
“I want to start a hospital that has a neurosurgeon,” a
young man says in response to fellow PCV
Danielle’s question asking for the
fifty boys what their goals are.
It is Saturday morning and I am exhausted after staying up
the night before doing evening activities with the same boys. I am exhausted
but profoundly happy.
Camp BRO [Boys Respecting Others] is the male equivalent to
the Camp GLOW I co-directed in September.
Unlike in September, however, I am not in charge this time. This means that I
have the energy and enthusiasm to lead energizers and activities and to joke
around with the guys.
Nt Lebohang from the Business Economic Development Corporation leads a session on business.
Yolanda, an amazing woman that lived in my training village
back in Pre-Service Training, has done an astounding job planning the camp.
Nearly all the sessions-covering topics including goal setting, leadership,
business skills, career development, gender, and sexual reproductive
health-have at least one host country speaker or organization leading the
session. This helps the participants to connect with a number of professionals
in their community but also dramatically increases the amount of effort Yolanda
has had to invest in communicating and planning.
Danielle smiling during her HIV test.
Not long after Danielle and Adrian's session on goal
setting, a woman from the local clinic arrives to offer HIV testing throughout
the day. Since the boys are in a session on business development, Danielle and
I jump on the opportunity to take HIV tests. After the session concludes, we
skip into the hall and share the testing opportunity by showing them our
testing strips. Abuti Khotso, a sassy and fun young man, challenges me, “Would
you show us if you were HIV positive?” I surprise him by letting him know
that yes, I would in fact show them my results even if I had HIV. He notes that
HIV is a death sentence, which opens the door for Danielle and me to share that
if an HIV positive person takes anti-retrovirals correctly, HIV is now less
dangerous than other common conditions in Lesotho like high blood pressure or
diabetes.
Later in the day, I am co-facilitating the session on Sexual
Reproductive Health with some volunteers from the Lesotho Red Cross. As I
discuss the female reproductive system, I am again surprised as most of the
many questions I am asked are about the biology and genetics of reproduction,
not sex.
That night we have a bonfire with s’mores. Jamilla, another
PCV, starts doing some call and response camp songs. When Boom Chicka Boom
begins, I jump up with enthusiasm. I have not sung my favorite verses of this
camp classic in years and I am absurdly excited.
The new BRO Club president hands out certificates to his Bros.
Living in my community in rural Botha Bothe, I forget that I
am great working with youth. I keep myself busy with Grassroot Soccer programs, teaching life skills at school, and
working with the women in myorganization. This work, however, happens predominantly in Sesotho. When I
work in Sesotho, I find I lose the playfulness of my personality and I have to
work so much harder to convey my content or explain activities. At camps like
GLOW and BRO, however, I am working with high school students, who are more
accustomed to English. I find my personality returns and the work is more fun
and less work. It is a great reminder as to what had me teaching in the
classroom, on ships, and in the woods.
So that said, thanks Yolanda for all of your
efforts in planning this camp. And thanks to the rest of the camp staff-‘M’e
‘Mahlapi, Adrian, Corinne, Ryan, Jamilla, and Danielle-working with you was wonderful!
I remember living in America, being blissfully ignorant
about the vital importance of this day and continued work in HIV care and
treatment. My how things change!
Now, I live in Lesotho, surrounded by the second highest HIV
rate in the world. When people die from illness, it is almost always
HIV-related. When people die from illness, HIV is almost never mentioned.
Just as it does in America, HIV in Lesotho continues to carry an
incredible stigma and huge amounts of discrimination. It seems that in America, because it can be
transmitted through sexual activity and intravenous drug use, it is seen as
scary and the repercussions of someone’s sins. The reality is, however, that
here in Lesotho, the people most likely to contract HIV are young women ages
15-24. Many contract HIV through unprotected sex with their husband or an older
partner. Many do not feel empowered to say no to sex or to insist upon condom
usage in their relationship. Many have had only one partner.
Dribbling around risks
in life is an important
skill.
It is time for us as a world to look past the fallacy that
someone did something wrong to contract HIV and to instead move toward helping to limit the scope of this disease.
Thanks to Anti-retroviral therapies, a person with HIV can
live a long and productive life through maintenance medication, just as a
person with diabetes, high blood pressure, and any number of other chronic
conditions can. Additionally, an HIV positive person who religiously takes
their medications can decrease their viral load so profoundly that the risk of
them passing it to a sexual partner or to a child through birth or breast milk
is incredibly reduced. There is simply no reason to stigmatize this disease!
A participant does push ups after hitting the "cone" for
risk of multiple partners during Risk Field.
For World AIDS Day here in Lesotho, my awesome counterparts
and I added to the PC Skillz Grassroot Soccer Intervention we were already
doing. Our practices today playing a game called Risk Field which uses risks like older partners, multiple partners, not using condoms, and combing alcohol and sex to show how HIV impacts not only the infected person but their family and friends and their entire community. We also played a game called Fact or Nonsense, which let us decide whether statements were true or not before learning more about the real facts.
We finished up the day with empowerment. Since the theme of this year's World AIDS Day is "The Time to Act is Now," everyone came up with something they can do to help stop the impact of HIV/AIDS. Here is what they shared:
Fact: Abstinence is the most effective way to avoid HIV.
Fact: The older your sexual partner, the more likely you are to get HIV.
"I will advise them [infected persons] to go to the health center for ARVs"
"I will tell them to abstain from sex..."
"I will form a social group"
"I will advise people to use condoms when having sex."
"I will tell them to go to the hospital.
I will tell them to have one boyfriend or girlfriend."
"I will tell them to have protected sex."
"I will abstain."
I will use condoms every time I have sex."
How will you help reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS? The time to act is now!
Yesterday, I delivered a speech for the Queen of Lesotho,
'M'e 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso, and the Deputy Minister of Gender. Yesterday, my
public speaking was broadcast on the national news. What is really important,
however, is that yesterday, Camp GLOW North 2015 concluded. Yesterday, 190
young women from four districts and 19 schools in Lesotho returned home ready
to start GLOW clubs and become positive leaders of change in their communities.
Over the last eight months or so, I have been working on Camp
GLOW. GLOW, which stands for Girls Leading Our World, is a global Peace Corps
program. Its vision is to empower young women to become leaders in their communities with six goals: gender equality, self esteem,
leadership, health, aspiration, and volunteerism.
Our camp was the largest such undertaking in Lesotho thus
far. The multi-district camp began last year with PCVs who have since completed
their service. They passed it on to us and we significantly expanded on their
successes last year. Working with three other PCVs, two representatives from
the Ministry of Gender, Youth, Sport, and Recreation, one from the Ministry of
Social Development, and one teacher from a school that participated last year,
we met regularly to ensure schools were invited to participate, the grant was
written, more local partners were found, and the school was ready to be turned
into a camp for five days. Despite years in similar programming, I had never
planned a program for a site not designed for said programming. It was
overwhelming the number of additional details required when turning a school
into a camp site for a week!
Obviously, we accomplished it. Last Friday, just over twenty
PCVs and Basotho staff arrived for our staff training. Then, before we were
ready, it was Saturday and girls began arriving. Despite being exhausted before
camp even began, it was impossible not to be energized by the enthusiasm of the
girls. As each taxi arrived, the girls would pile out with shouts, dancing, and
hugs!
In no time, camp was in full swing. The young women
participated in sessions to help them reach the six goals of GLOW. At the same
time, an advisor from each school participated in training sessions to help
them adapt to leading such a dynamic club in a manner quite different from
teaching here.
The Programming Directors and my
awaiting the Queen's arrival.
There were, of course, the usual challenges. More of my time
than I would have liked was spent running around taking care of medical issues,
discussions about food quantity with the two school cooks, and simply trying to
make sure everyone else had what they needed for the camp to be successful
while also co-leading the Advisors' sessions and trying to participate in the
regular camp activities. These girls, however, made it all worth it. Every time
they saw me passing, they greeted me with an incredible amount of love.
Career Panel speakers and organizers.
The campers participated in so many incredible sessions
throughout the week. The FLAG or Fight Like a Girl facilitators from Qacha's
Nek came and met with every girl and the staff/advisors that wanted to
participate, teaching them ways to escape should they be attacked. This was
definitely a favorite activity. There were sessions on Goal Setting,
Leadership, Tie Dye, Empowering Others, Self Esteem and Positive Body Image,
Sexual and Reproductive Health, HIV Prevention, Human Trafficking and Gender
Based Violence, Yoga, Aerobics, CV (resume for the Americans) Writing,
friendship bracelets, and much more. There was an amazing career panel with
Basotho women in a variety of careers sharing their experiences, the challenges
they had to overcome, and how to get into their field. In the evenings, we had
a movie night, a dance party complete with GLOW sticks, and an amazing
bonfire/talent show on our last evening.
The Advisors with their certificates
showing completion of their training.
During the bonfire/talent show, I sat in the school's office
with the camp leadership team. We needed to find a student speaker for the
closing ceremony, one who could handle speaking not only to the entire camp but
to a number of distinguished guests. We had five nominations from counselors so
we called each of them in to ask them to tell us about their week at camp and
what they felt they had gained from the experience. I have never had such
incredible feedback from campers or students during a program. With no time to
think, the campers each shared powerful praise for the impact camp would have
on their lives. A few of them had attended the previous year and still had
nothing but praise for how this second camp changed them. One of the girls
wrote her thoughts down before sharing, she said, “I did not know how to trust
in myself, then after that [the session on empowerment], I just told myself
that I will be who I am and do whatever I want to do as long as it is the right
thing.” She concluded her thoughts with “You showed us that you love and care
for us and you want us to have a better future.”
In all of the chaos that ensued our final morning as we
prepared to change the site from camp back to school, prepared 250 campers,
advisors, and staff for departure, and prepared for the arrival of our incredibly
distinguished guests, it was too easy for me to focus on the right now. But
this camp was not about right now. Everything we stressed with the campers and
the advisors was focused on the future. Camp was not simply about five
incredible days, it was about returning to school and starting a GLOW club to
teach the same lessons and activities to other girls. It was about young women
deciding they can determine their own future. They can set goals and achieve
them. They can serve as leaders in their communities. They can.
'M'e Masenate Mohato Seeiso bestow certificates to the
GLOW Junior Counselors.
The queen was clearly impressed by our camp and our young
women. I was standing with her assistant, who was stunned when the queen
deviated from her prepared words at the end of her speech; suggesting that next
year her daughter could be able to attend Camp GLOW and that she and her
daughter might try to visit some of the clubs the girls would be forming!
When I took all of this on a year ago, I had no idea how big
it would become. I have reached a point of exhaustion not encountered in years.
My voice is trying not to disappear entirely. I spent five nights sleeping on a
thin mattress on the cement floor of a computer lab with twenty other women.
And, I am still overwhelmed by the amount of reporting and paperwork I need to
do in order to fully close out the camp and the grant from Peace Corps that
made it all possible, but it was definitely worth it.
Campers do Grassroot Soccer Activities with Torle and her counterpart Maseru
Campers participate in a session on Sexual and Reproductive Health
Camp Staff, Junior Counselors, and distinguished guests after the closing ceremony
I must give huge thanks to the camp staff, the campers, the
schools, the principals, the advisors, the distinguished guests who helped close
camp, and especially my partners on the Camp Planning Committee. A project this
big could never have succeeded without their help!
Torle in her kobo and seshoeshoe on our swearing in day.
Torle is another PCV who arrived in Lesotho with me back in June of 2014. She is a vibrant and energetic young woman who calls Utah home but has traveled and lived all over including elsewhere in Africa and Alaska. She has an incredible singing and beat boxing talent and definitely qualifies as the coolest basketball player in Peace Corps Lesotho.
Given her affinity and experience with team sports, it is not surprising that Peace Corps placed her with the Leseli Youth Sports Organization in Teyateyaneng or TY. Leseli Youth Sports works on youth development by encouraging youth to engage in healthy, active lifestyles. Youth participate through football (soccer for the American readers), basketball, and volleyball teams; although predominantly football. When she arrived at site, she found she had a jam packed schedule from the beginning. Torle found herself coaching multiple youth teams and visiting the many local schools in and around TY.
Torle's counterpart teaching life skills in GRS
After we attended the Grassroot Soccer training last November, she augmented those school visits to include the GRS PC Skillz curriculum, teaching teens life skills and HIV Prevention messages using football drills. Currently, she is in secondary schools three days a week. She also coaches basketball, volleyball, and netball. Netball is a women's sport somewhere similar to basketball but with different rules about passing and traveling, there is no recognizable dribbling that basketball players would identify. She also works with the LBA or Lesotho Basketball Association and teaches a Zumba class for women in her village.
Torle has been working incredibly hard with her counterparts to help them complete an impressively large project for their community. After doing Needs Assessments with the many youth in her organization, they decided to build a multipurpose sports court for youth in the Teyateyaneng area. As Teyateyaneng is one of the larger towns in Lesotho, this court has the possibility to be used by thousands of youth.
Preparation for the new sports court begin.
In the interest of capacity building and empowering the youth she is working with, Torle and her counterpart created a really strong Youth Committee. They visited the seven secondary or high schools in TY and requested the school nominate the three most outstanding students with an interest in sports. These twenty-one youth were then interviewed in English before the group was narrowed down to five girls and five boys. The Youth Committee meets every Friday. They have been working on every detail of the project from the beginning.
The Committee co-wrote the project proposal and donation request letters. The teens then visited area business owners to ask for their involvement. They did a phenomenal job, as they have five large construction and building supply owners donating many materials, the labor, and all equipment for construction of their Multi-purpose Sports Court. This left them to continue fundraising only for four materials and meals for their laborers. They are planning and implementing a number of community events to raise funds to feed their volunteer laborers on workdays. And, with Torle, they have written and been approved for a Peace Corps Partnership Program or PCPP grant. Their PCPP grant is currently active with Peace Corps if you are interested in taking a closer look.
Girls doing a drama as part of GRS.
Torle recently also became the Grassroot Soccer Coordinator for Lesotho. As the coordinator, she helps and supports the PCVs in Lesotho who have been through the GRS training and are doing GRS Interventions. She also serves as the conduit between the GRS staff in Cape Town, the Peace Corps staff in Maseru, and the PCVs in country. It a lot to add onto an already busy woman's shoulders, however, with her passion for youth sports and programming.
A crew clearing the area where the sports court will be.
Torle's many well trained and incredibly motivated GRS Co-Coaches.
The coaches and certificate earning team members at our graduation.
For most of the last three weeks, my days have centered around studying ways to talk about relationships and HIV in Sesotho and playing with village youth.
I have been doing a PC Skillz Intervention camp. PC Skillz is a joint venture between Peace Corps and Grassroot Soccer. It uses soccer-based games to teach life skills, positive living, and HIV/AIDS awareness.
Although practices supposed to last for only an hour, most days I was playing with, talking to, or working with youth for 3-4 hours as practices usually took us between 90-120 minutes and the village kids would start arriving as much as two hours early and stay as long as possible to play with the "indestructible" One World Futbol. Add to that coach's meetings, making supplies, and translating pieces of the program with my brother and my entire universe has only been PC Skillz.
The PC Skillz curriculum is a pretty fantastic experiential education curriculum. It reminded me of my favorite teaching moments in the US over the last decade.
Over the eleven practices, we covered important topics like stigma and discrimination, abstinence, how HIV and ARVs affect the body, and how to avoid the riskiest behaviors for contracting HIV: unprotected sex, multiple partners, older partners, and combining sex and alcohol. Most practices we had 30-40 village youth from 9-19 despite having said the program was for 10-15 year old youth. In total, over 50 individuals attended at least one practice with more than half attended at least half of the practices. The Peace Corps Skillz program requires participants to attend at least eight practices to earn a certificate of completion, so only 18 received certificates. The others can come again next time we do the program to earn a coveted certificate.
The coaching team after graduation: Abuti Thabo, me, Abuti Ts'epo, and Ausi Mareisi
My co-coaches were absolutely amazing. While I was living, breathing, and sleeping PC Skillz, they were coaching with me a few hours a day and also working 6-9 hours in the fields! Every time they arrived, often just as we were starting practice, they were rushing back from the fields, but they always brought enthusiasm and a willingness to help. Prior to attending the PC Skillz training at the end of November, I worried about bringing my brother to the training as my counterpart. My brother is fantastic, but he is barely nineteen and still in high school. I worried that I was asking too much of him to coach his peers and younger teens in the village when talking about sensitive issues like HIV transmission, voluntary male medical circumcision, and sex. He was absolutely incredible though, both as my Sesotho back up-he seemed to know when to help and when to let me work out what I needed to say-and as a coach in his right.
The youth were amazing too. Sometimes I wondered how much of the message was getting through between my poorly accented Sesotho and their reticence to speak up during Q&A and discussions. But at our graduation ceremony yesterday, it was obvious they knew their stuff.
"Coach" Bolokang
For the graduation, in addition to bestowing certificates and taking over 100 photos (no really...the kids love having their picture taken, over and over again!), we ran through one of our earlier practices with some of the participants acting as coaches. When asked by their peers, the participants had every single answer they had hesitated to give over the last few weeks. It was wonderful!
Coach Thabo telling a "Coach's Story."
I think my favorite thing about this particular intervention is that it really helped me get to know the youth in the village-their names, their personalities, etc. And it helped them get to know me and my personality, seeing me as a friend and mentor instead of just the smiling American who always says hello!
