Our 2-hour mentoring session in Mamelodi encompassed two sessions, the junior session for the first hour, and then senior training in the second. It was again a great opportunity to think about differentiation in messaging and practices between junior players and senior players – and revealed the strengths and challenges of peer-to-peer education.
While the junior session focused on the basic myths and facts about HIV transmission, the seniors were able to start to get into real depth about Screen – Know – Act, the process for HIV self-screening, and some of the options available for taking action once you know your status.
Coach Sizwe led from the front. A coach in the Lee Booth mould, he’s loud and fearless – as soon as the senior players started rolling into the ground he had them involved in a fielding warm up and his shouts carried across the field:
“Screen yourself! Screen yourself!!
Know your status! Know your status!!
Act on it! Act on it!!”
Deftly followed up by an explanation on how this then links to HIV Self Screening, and the importance of acting no matter what your result, positive or negative.
Meanwhile Coach Freddie, a quieter man who is lead coach of the senior practice, was setting up a couple of practices to work on fielding – the seniors had been dropping a lot of catches in practice and so that was to be the focus on the session. We had a chat about how we could add a few messages into the session, and he was understandably nervous particularly about giving the explanation of the HIV Self-Screening process for the first time. We came to an agreement – I’d go first, and explain for the first group, and then once the groups switched over he’d lead on the session.
As it turned out, he needn’t have been nervous. Calling the whole group together to kick the session off Freddie delivered a concise explanation that the “new year was for new things” and that the sessions now might include some basic information about HIV. He then proceeded to nail the HIV Self-Screening process for a fielding drill that required players to work their way around a series of cones, collecting and throwing a ball at each cone, and with each cone corresponding to a step in the Self-Screening process.
These older age groups, and peer-to-peer learning, is clearly the optimum place for the HIV Self-Screening content, and it’s now up to us to work with Northerns to think about how we can maximise the sharing of these messages to these senior players, while also thinking about what the junior age group content should look like as a springboard for the future.
Well done to you all. Great work!!