{"id":278,"date":"2016-10-11T16:02:50","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T16:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/?p=278"},"modified":"2016-10-11T16:18:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T16:18:56","slug":"%e2%80%8bthis-girl-can-and-so-can-all-the-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/2016\/10\/11\/%e2%80%8bthis-girl-can-and-so-can-all-the-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bThis Girl Can (and so can all the rest)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jo and Hannah on coaching the girl child.<\/p>\n

Today is UN International Day of the Girl Child. Much of our focus on our HIV\/AIDs awareness messages is on equality and that there is no stigma in cricket. Everyone can play together no matter if you are HIV positive or negative, tall or short, male or female.<\/p>\n

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The talent and enthusiasm of the girls has been evident here in Botswana, all keen to get involved with the cricket sessions. There has been so stigma, and we emphasise this message throughout the sessions. Girls often pick up the skills quicker than the boys, and it feels like us as coaches may be role models to them (especially as they seem to think we are on the England cricket team!) Sport is a chance for girls to forget their inhibitions and play alongside the boys as equals.<\/p>\n

This morning started with a primary school session at an International School, with a round of relays followed by two games of rapid fire. There were four teams; Team Abstain, Team Be Faithful, Team Condom, and Team Testing. It is satisfying to hear all the kids chanting these names to cheer on their teammates, ensuring the HIV messages sink in and also a bit of camaraderie and competition\u2026 very important in cricket. The heat was evident however today\u2026 hitting 39 degrees it meant that we tried to coach in the shade wherever we could!<\/p>\n

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The next session was at another primary school, and this time we ran some coaching stations to give the kids (and us!) the chance to have a break in between sessions. The ABCT messages don\u2019t seem to be as well known in Maun as they were last week in Francistown but we are teaching them as we go and by the wrap up sessions the kids seem to have a good grasp of the meanings. The kids all seemed really happy – as with every other session, they are enjoying the skills of cricket!<\/p>\n

On a personal note, the ABCT messages are creeping into most things that we coaches do \u2013 we Abstain from staying in the sun too long, we try to Be Faithful to the amount of water we drink (although when left out in this heat, it gets so hot that you could almost make a cup of tea in it so it isn\u2019t that refreshing!), we protect ourselves with sun cream and hats (like we protect ourselves against HIV\/AIDS with a Condom), and of course, the heat is the most Testing part of it!<\/p>\n

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There is no Stigma if we need to take a minute out to rest we work as a team to make each session successful. We hope that through the coach education we have given the teachers the skills and confidence to continue the kids\u2019 education reinforcing the cricket skills and HIV messages.<\/p>\n

The final session of the day was with 212 primary school children, and so on a fairly small patch of sand, we ran relays to make sure all of the children got involved and had fun. \u00a0Their enthusiasm was amazing as we got them doing all sorts of ball skills and tricks, before some close catching practice where we reinforced the ABCT message. \u00a0There is such a shortage of water here that the teachers told us the toilets were closed because of the lack of water. \u00a0It\u2019s hard to imagine how they cope in the summer (it is currently early spring), especially doing PE, and it puts into perspective how lucky we are in the UK to have such ready access to water and healthcare.<\/p>\n

In all, despite the heat we are still strong as a team and trying to reach as many children as we can whilst in Maun. The kids keep asking us to come back which can only be a good sign and as the \u2018England cricket team\u2019 we hope to be back on tour here soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jo and Hannah on coaching the girl child. Today is UN International Day of the…<\/p>\n

Read the post\u200bThis Girl Can (and so can all the rest)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cwbblogs.com\/botswana16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}