27th September
Today was a day of two halves. The morning was slow because we had no coaching in due to the fact it was a Sunday and only boarding schools were open. The allowed us a couple of hours at the hotel relaxing and then a stroll around the streets of Gulu, to have a browse and to do a bit of shopping.
The relaxing morning ensured that all members of the team were eager to get coaching again in the afternoon. We first visited Mary Immaculate school where we received a warm welcome. Like a couple of days before, the students of the all girl school were incredible to coach. They were very attentive and got stuck into the drills we had set up for them. The session involved a mix of catching, batting and bowling drills. The catching drill involved a mix of competitions and silly acts (a chicken impression being one of many). Whilst doing the drills, we would introduce the ABCT messages when applicable.
Following this hour and a half hour session, we headed to Sir Samuel Baker School, which is a senior all boys school. As a team, we decided to set up a game of pairs cricket due to the age of the students and the fact they already had cricket equipment in use on their large flat playing field. This session was very successful and the boys were very knowledgeable about the ABCT messages and were very open about why they would and why they wouldn’t follow the message. One reason why they wouldn’t use condoms was because they are too expensive, which could be a major cause for HIV and AIDS being still a big issue in the country still. One student states that roughly 5% of the school had HIV.
During this project I am in charge of doing the monitoring and evaluating (M and E) of the coaching sessions at each school. This involves asking three random students a set of questions before the session and another three students the same questions after the session. This enables us to understand how much knowledge the kids have about HIV and AIDS before the session and then to see if their knowledge improves as a result of our coaching. M and E also helps the charity understand the long term impact it has in particular areas and at particular schools after multiple visits.
Overall, it was a superb day which involved coaching two very good school and the team felt that we had a positive impact and we look forward to the festival day tomorrow where there will be some members 27th September.