Working with the Red Cross

Peace Corps isn’t just about battling bugs and surviving difficult living conditions. The work I do on a day-to-day basis in Peace Corps is incredibly fulfilling, but also incredibly challenging. My primary assignment area, as an NGO volunteer, is the Red Cross. At the Red Cross, my duties mainly revolve around capacity building. To capacity build, I have given typing lessons to about half of the staff, and have taught basic lessons on different Microsoft programs like excel and PowerPoint. For example, when I first arrived at Red Cross, the monthly expenses tracking was done by hand. Therefore, I taught the Administration Officer how to use excel, and showed her some excel basics. Now the monthly expenses are tracked on the computer. In addition, I have also created some new contracts for the Red Cross. I created a contract between parents of children at the Centre and the Centre, outlining the duties and responsibilities of both parties. This was to clear up some challenges the Centre was having regarding the involvement of (or rather lack of) parents at the Centre. In addition, I am helping to apply for a grant for materials to start a garden at the Red Cross.

A large part of my service also consists of working closely with the Field Officer (FO), Karabo, and recruiting more Red Cross members, and raising awareness about the services the Red Cross offers. To accomplish these goals, a few months ago we spent several weeks going around to different institutions in Sefhare and presenting about the Red Cross, the services it offers, how to become a member, and its programs. Red Cross programs in Sefhare include Disaster Management (Sefhare is a disaster area for high winds and rains that destroy houses during the rainy season), HIV/AIDS, Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), and Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC). My work mainly focuses around the HIV/AIDS, CBR and OVC programs.

For the HIV/AIDS program, the Field Officer and I are in charge of raising awareness about HIV.  In service of this, during April (the Month of Youth Against HIV/AIDS) we went around to the three different school in Sefhare and presented on topics of HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, multiple concurrent partnerships, stigma and discrimination. The presentations were gave were interactive, and usually included a game. For example, the game that we played at the Junior Secondary School was called HIV Limbo, and it was adapted from the Grassroots Soccer curriculum. During the activity, two students held a limbo pole, and the rest of the students were supposed to limbo under the pole without touching it. If a student touched the limbo pole, they were “infected” with HIV. During the first round of the limbo game, the limbo pole started out high, above the students’ heads. During this first round, students were pretending to abstain from having sex. Because the pole was so high, all students were able to make it under the pole, and they did not get “infected” with HIV. This represented how it was easy to avoid contracting HIV while a person is abstaining from having sex. During the second round, the pole was lowered to the students’ shoulders. During the second round, students were pretending to be engaged in a sexual relationship with a classmate their age. While all students were able to make it under the pole, it was harder to avoid “contracting” HIV. During the final round, the pole was at the student’s hips. During this round, students were pretending that they were engaged in a sexual relationship with a partner who was 10 years older than them. Nearly all of the students touched the limbo pole, and as a result were “infected” with HIV. This last round demonstrated the difficulty of avoiding catching HIV when engaging in an intergenerational relationship. Partners who are five, ten or fifteen years older than the students are more likely to have had more sexual partners, and therefore have more exposure to STDs and HIV. During each round of the game, there were follow-up questions for the students like, “What are the benefits of engaging in a relationship with a partner your age?” or “What is the balance of power like when you are dating someone who is much older than you?” The students loved this game, were engaged and asked a lot of great questions.

Another HIV/AIDS program that the Field Officer and I carried out was delivering presentations to teachers at the schools on topics such as HIV/AIDS prevention, epidemiology, stigma and discrimination. The purpose was to help inform educators about issues that school children are facing surrounding HIV and accepting their HIV positive status. 

Girls attending the Month of Youth Against HIV talk.

HIV Limbo.

Explaining about family planning options to the female students.

A male student demonstrating how to correctly put on a condom with the hospital nurse.

Students looking at pictures of STDs.

My work with the CBR program is mainly involved with helping the Rehabilitation Technician establish a Disability Support Group. The support group, which is for the Tswapong South area (the area Sefhare is in) is to advocate on behalf of those with disabilities, and establish a support network to those with disabilities and their families. I helped draft the constitution for the support group. In addition, I through Peace Corps networking, I received a grant of 20 wheelchairs for people in the CBR program and children at the Centre.

Lastly, I am involved in the OVC program. The OVC program mainly consists of helping out at Kids Club for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) on the weekends. In addition, I have taught the pre-school teachers at the Centre fun games to play with the Stimulation Centre children.

However, the Red Cross recently retired the Stimulation Centre pre-school Principal and transferred the Field Officer. Seeing as most of my work was with the Field Officer, I am anxious about what this next phase of my service will look like. No matter what, though, I love working with the Red Cross. They are an incredibly important part of the community in Sefhare, and the work that they do benefits many people. In addition, they support me in every aspect of my service, which is one of the reasons my time in Sefhare has been so productive and successful.