After four long
days in the woods of New Hampshire and a couple days of travel, I’ve finally
arrived in South Africa! The journey to Johannesburg was certainly a long one,
but there’s much more in store this coming year that will make it complete!
As a quick
introduction, I first want to explain the purpose of this blog. This year I
will be working with an incredible organization called Grassroot Soccer (GRS)
in Johannesburg, South Africa. I will be documenting not only the work that I
will be doing with GRS, but also my travels around the continent as well as the
exciting and unforeseen experiences that lie ahead. I will begin every blog
with a word, saying or phrase in one of the indigenous languages in South Africa
like Zulu, which is one of the most popular indigenous languages spoken in
Johannesburg, that will express an overall theme for that particular blog post.
My goal is to have at least one blog post every couple of weeks, so hopefully
it will stay updated!
To give a little
background on the Grassroot Soccer organization, it was founded in 2002 by
Tommy Clark, a Dartmouth College alum (woot woot!) doctor, soccer player,
innovator, and friend. After playing for a professional soccer team in
Zimbabwe, Tommy learned first hand the effect that AIDS has on many communities
in sub-Saharan Africa and was so moved by the people and friends that he met
there, that he was inspired to establish Grassroot Soccer, Inc. I had the
privilege of meeting Tommy this past week at orientation, and simply hearing
his story and speaking with him was enough to reassure me that this internship
in South Africa is exactly what I want to do.
Although it may
seem like an outlandish concept, Grassroot Soccer uses the power of soccer to unite
and mobilize communities to combat the spread of HIV. 33 million people are
infected with HIV worldwide, and while it is definitely an issue within
communities in the U.S., the magnitude of the disease is even greater in
Africa. 67% of people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to
get to the root of the problem, Grassroot Soccer implements various “Skillz”
curricula in schools for different age groups, including a specific curriculum
for girls. By coupling the game of soccer with education about the transmission
and spread of HIV, students are able to fuel their interest for the beautiful
game while learning important life skills that lead to healthy lifestyles and
choices. Not only does GRS develop a curriculum that uses various analogies and
metaphors that relate soccer to life, it trains and empowers coaches who are
role models and soccer players within the community so that they can teach the
curriculum to the students, thus making it a more sustainable program.
Furthermore,
Grassroot Soccer prides itself on having a great deal of evidence that shows
the progress that participants of GRS programs have made over time. The only
way that GRS can continue to grow and improve the quality of its work is by
understanding how well it is doing and what can be done better. That’s where I
come in. I will be a Monitoring and Evaluation intern at GRS’s site in Soweto,
one of South Africa’s most famous townships. It is best known for being home to
some of South Africa’s most prominent global leaders like Nelson Mandela and
Desmond Tutu as well as its anti-apartheid uprising. I will be supporting the
Monitoring and Evaluation team by working on a variety of projects including
focus groups, interviews, data collection and analysis as well as maintenance
of the Skillz curriculum database.
Prior to take
off this past Sunday, all twenty-two Grassroot Soccer interns participated in
orientation, which was held at Harris Cabin for the first two nights and
Pierce’s Inn for the last two nights. Orientation involved four full days of
training, learning, playing and getting to know each other. As much fun as all
this sounds, I have to admit it was exhausting. But I loved every minute of it.
We started off at Pierce’s Inn in Etna, New Hampshire where all of us were able
to meet and greet one another, most of us for the first time. Then we made the
trek even further into the woods where we hiked up to Harris Cabin to spend the
next couple of days. Wednesday night was fairly relaxed because we spent most
of the time getting acquainted with one another. It was also our first real
opportunity to get a taste of what the GRS organization is really like… an
enthusiastic, driven and fun group that is dedicated to improving the lives of
others.
Thursday was
filled with a variety of games, activities and a hike up Moose Mountain. When
we came back to Pierce’s Inn on Friday morning we had more formal training with
powerpoint presentations which were interspersed with various “energizers” that
kept us alert and engaged throughout the day. Saturday was another full day of
training plus some soccer in the rain, and then we finally wrapped things up on
Sunday morning before heading back to Boston. Thankfully, I got a chance to go
home for a few hours before heading to Logan and to say my final good-byes. The
good news is that the four days we spent with no cell phone service or internet
access in the middle of New Hampshire really gave us a chance to focus on our
future endeavor and get fired up for everything that lies ahead.
As Michelle
Obama so aptly put it, “Soccer is the hook.” Soccer is the universal language
that inevitably links diverse communities across the globe. Soccer represents
the similarities we have with one another because it puts us all on the same
playing field and encourages us to use our skills to reach our ultimate goals. Soccer
has the power to bring people together, to have a positive influence on people
in order to build up and empower communities. By harnessing the power of soccer,
there is real potential to change the direction of this epidemic. As I prepare
to begin my year-long internship with Grassroot Soccer, I look forward to this opportunity
to be a part of the collective effort to fight HIV across the globe.
Here we go....
