Girls Sports Camp Part 2.1

After a month-long break, the girls came back for part two of the day camp. We will continue with the event until November 8th (one week before I leave my site to go back to the US).  Some of the exercises you'll see below come from the Grassroot Soccer curriculum, which is a South African non-profit organization that aims to spread HIV/AIDS awareness through soccer and other fun activities.  

So far, the camp has been a great success. Many of the girls have reported what they've learned about regarding HIV/AIDS and have demonstrated their progress in basketball, volleyball, soccer, and handball.

Saturday, September 13th

Here's Minoria, a high school student, showing a girl from the elementary school how to stretch properly

The girls here are practicing hitting inside the small rectangle 

Captolina, a high school student (right), is helping a girl with her free-throw shot

Ofelia (left) is helping this 5th graders dribble

This group is practicing passing the ball

Two high school volleyball players helping with a basketball activity

In this activity, two girl race against each other.  They have to pass the ball to three people and then try to make a basket before their opponent does.

Now, it's time to play soccer!

My counterpart, Sumburane, is explaining the rules of the next activity called "Risk Field", which comes from the Grassroot Soccer curriculum

In this activity, the girls have to avoid hitting the bottles with the soccer ball.

There are three teams of ten.  There are five bottles that have a risk attached to it.  The risks of getting HIV include multiple (sex) partners, older (sex) partners, alcohol abuse, unprotected sex, and sex in exchange for good grades (which is common for high school students here)

What's the consequence of hitting a bottle? Three push-ups!

This game was extremely fun and it seemed that they were able to  understand the risks of getting HIV when my counterpart debriefed with them.

Saturday, September 20th

The following Saturday, we had a little Easter Egg Hunt.  Some of the student athletes helped hide eight eggs with a message about HIV/AIDS inside of it and a piece of candy.

On your mark, get set, go!

There they are searching for the eggs.

Here are the lucky winners!

Now they get to read each HIV/AIDS fact to the group

It's time for volleyball practice!

Lucia (right) showing this girl from the elementary school how to hit the volleyball.  This move is called machete in Portuguese.  Sorry, I forgot what it's called in English, lol.

This is a high school volleyball player demonstrating the toque pass.

A little fun playing with the volleyball net

This next activity also comes from the Grassroot Soccer curriculum

In this limbo game, the rope is held high and the risks of getting HIV are low.

These no/low risks include abstinence, having one partner, and using protection

Afterwards, the cord went down lower, which represented that there's a greater risk of touching the rope and contracting HIV, hypothetically.  The risks were the same ones discussed the previous Saturday; multiple partners, unprotected sex, etc.

I love this picture.  The girls look like dancers.

Lastly, the girls are practicing their handball skills.

Later, the Lady Divas showed the primary school girls what a basketball game looks like.

I will report on how the camp is going in about two weeks. Thanks for reading, everyone!

"Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.  It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers.  It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination." 

-Nelson Mandela