Sex Ed. and Soccer

11/01

   

   I've written before about how I recently helped start a Standard 6 PACT club at one of the primary schools in my village and because of this I've been getting to know the students and teachers better at that school. The school head and I were coming up with ideas for educating and engaging more of the primary students in positive after school activities and came up with an idea of having a soccer game for standards 5 and 6 students and incorporating a Life Skills sort of talk with that. I came up with the idea of talking to them about STIs/ HIV so I talked to the guidance counselor and school head about what I wanted the lesson to be about ahead of time, and they approved it.

   The activity started at 4pm after school ended. I had written different STI facts on pieces of construction paper and passed the paper out to students. I made the talk more into a game. The students got into a circle and I passed out the sheets of paper to some students to hold up. I then stood in the middle of the circle with a soccer ball and kicked it to a student,  and whoever I kicked the ball to kicked it back to me and then helped read one of the fact sheets out loud, and I further explained things and asked them if they had questions. The information included different types of STIs, different ways of transmission, symptoms, and prevention. I also talked to them about how if they ever needed to go to the clinic for anything whether it was because they had a question, thought they might have an STI, were worried about being pregnant or needed to go to the clinic for any reason at all really and were scared to go to let me know, and I would go and wait with them. I told them that if I'm not at the clinic or school for them to let a nurse or teacher know because they have my phone number because their teachers, nurses, and I rather have them ask for help and for someone to sit with them because they are scared than have them not go and end up sick. I also told them that the nurses and doctor at the clinic are very kind.There were 62 students present, and they seemed to be paying attention and interested.

   After the STI/HIV talk we played soccer. Originally I had planned on just splitting them into teams by having them count off and having the teams be co-ed, but I was told by the teacher who I was working with that the girls and boys could not play on the same team because the boys were "too rough" and the girls might get hurt. I was a bit surprised by this, but asked then if the girls could play against each other after the boys were finished playing, and I was told that was fine. The standard 5 and 6 boys played against each other for a half an hour or so, while the standard 5 and 6 girls watched and routed on their friends. The girls talked to me about how some of them had just learned to play soccer at school the day before and didn't think that they were going to be allowed to play this afternoon, and they had thought the soccer playing part of the activity was just going to be for the boys. They were VERY enthusiastic when they heard that they were going to be able to play as well. Some of them said they were kind of nervous about playing so I told them I would play too, and they laughed and then joined in. It was so much fun! The girls ended up being just as into playing soccer as the boys were, and the boys who were watching when the girls had their turn cheered them on just as the girls had cheered them on. We were playing soccer until 5:30, and then had to end the activity because it was only supposed to go until 5. Many of the kids didn't want to go home and were asking if we could leave the school soccer ball with them so they could keep playing on the field, but we couldn't because the school only has so many soccer balls and if they go missing they won't have any, and also because their families would probably start to worry soon if they weren't home since it was getting late. I assured them that I would talk to the school head about planning more events like this though.