I GLOW, Do You?

In Peace Corps, I work with many different institutions in my village: the Red Cross, Hospital, schools, Mothers for All. However, my favorite part of my Peace Corps service is working with the youth in the schools. Specifically, I love doing GLOW camps.

Giants, Wizards, Trolls ice breaker

GLOW (Girls and Guys Leading Our World) camps were founded in the 1990’s by Peace Corps Volunteers in Romania. GLOW camps cover a variety of different topics in the hope that the information students learn will give them the necessary resources to overcome obstacles they might face, and give them the skills to achieve their goals.

Sex or Gender exercise

Since becoming a PCV, I have helped lead six of GLOW camps. Working with an amazing crew of four other PCVs in my intake group, we applied for a grant through Peace Corps, and received almost $10,000 to carry out a series of camps in our district. For the camps, we created a unique curriculum that we would follow on the topics of life skills, gender based violence, HIV, leadership, peer pressure and self-esteem. Our goal was to make each session at the camps interactive and engaging way possible, so the students would have fun, and not feel like they were in the classroom. For example we did activities such as “Our Bodies” charades, HIV jeopardy and HIV Limbo.

Condom Balloon game demonstration by Anne Conte (facilitator, PCV)

The first camp in our series turned out great, and was a good model for how to run a camp, however, it was lead primarily by veteran PCVs. The second camp in our series was the first camp we (the new PCVs) carried out and facilitated without the help of experienced PCVs.

We encountered two major challenges during the second camp. The primary challenge was the language barrier. While all youth in Botswana speak English in school, the level of English fluency varies greatly across the nation. The first camp was held in one of the largest villages in Botswana. Therefore, the student’s grasp of English was quiet high. The second camp took place with the students from my village, Sefhare, which is a small, rural village. Thus, the English comprehension level was considerably higher in the first camp than the second. Some of the activities we had planned for the GLOW camp required active discussion, and without the proper understanding of English, or confidence in their English speaking abilities, some youth from my school that attended the camp were unable to participate.

Gender based violence tree

A second challenge we encountered was creating a comfortable and conducive environment for the youth. Because it took much longer to get the students to the camp than anticipated, the introductory sessions (the group icebreaker sessions, the sessions that introduced the camp, and the session that established ground rules) were rushed. We found that because of this, the youth had trouble connecting with other students and facilitators, and therefore did not actively participate in discussions.

While the students learned a lot and had a great time, I was disappointed that the second camp encountered so many challenges. However, in hindsight, the camp was a wonderful learning opportunity. It gave us a lot experience and ideas on how to improve the curriculum and work with the youth for the future camps. After the second camp, we almost entirely gutted the curriculum and re-designed it (while keeping the same topics), so that it was much more user-friendly and was accessible to youth with varying different levels of English comprehension. We made sure that at least two hours were blocked for introductions, ice-breakers, and ground rules so that the tone of the camp was set early. We also created teams of students at the beginning of the camp. Each team had five people, and they had to come up with a team name, sound and motion. When the curriculum required students to work in groups during sessions, groups were already established, and students were comfortable working with the people in their group. Thus, discussion and group participation increased. This also encouraged a greater sense of camaraderie.

Sex or gender exercise

Since the camp with my students, both students and teacher have asked me if there is going to be another camp. The impression that the camp left on them is strong. And, I hope the lessons that they learned during it stays with them throughout their lives. 

Condom Distribution: Part 2

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about the condom distribution project that I am spearheading in my village. Since last posting, the Red Cross has gone on to do several more distributions in the village. I thought it would be neat to post some basic statistics about demographics of the distribution campaign.

Currently, condoms are distributed to 13 institutions around Sefhare. When each institution is given their box(es) of condoms, they are also given a record sheet to track the number of condoms they distribute. The record sheet tracks whether the person collecting the condoms is male or female, youth or adult, and the number of condoms collected.

For example, during the month of August, 4,464 condoms were distributed in Sefhare. The institutions that went through condoms at the highest rates were the Immigration Office and local bar. This high rate of distribution can be attributed to high traffic flow in these institutions. During the month of August, more males than females took condoms, and more youth than adults took condoms.  Youth took the most condoms at social gathering places, such as at the local bar and a hair salon. Female youth took the most condoms at the bar and the Red Cross. Male youth took the most condoms at the bar, the local government office (which is next to a popular volleyball pitch), and the hair salon. Female adults took the most condoms at the primary school, and male adults took the most condoms at the local government office and the bar. 

Because of these trends, we distribute more condoms to institutions near social gathering places than others. It is important that both youth and adults have access to free condoms. And, if used correctly and consistently, condoms can help reduce the spread of STDs and HIV.

Condom Distribution Campaign: Part One

While I primarily work with the Red Cross (RC) and schools within Sefhare, I am a community volunteer, and try to work with as many institutions within Sefhare that I can. One of those institutions is the hospital in my town, the Sefhare Primary Hospital.

Because of the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Botswana, all health clinics and hospitals provide free condoms to Batswana. Most clinics run out of condoms quickly, however, because Sefhare has a hospital (which provides condoms to clinics), the condom supply is plentiful. However, in Sefhare, the hospital is on the edge of town. This provides several problems for community members regarding the ease of access to free condoms. First, many people don’t want to travel that far to have access to free condoms. They also don’t want to spend money on condoms. Therefore, they have sex without condoms. Second, people are afraid (specifically youth) that if they go to the hospital, family members or people they know in the community will see them taking condoms. Thus, they have sex without condoms. As a result of these factors, one of my first projects with the Red Cross was to tap into the resources at the hospital and start a condom distribution campaign in Sefhare.  

The condom distribution campaign started in April. Part of the agreement between the Red Cross, the Primary Hospital, and myself was that if we (the Red Cross and I) were going to distribute condoms in Sefhare, the hospital wanted a record of where the condoms were being used. Therefore, at the beginning of the month, each institution was given a box of condoms and a record sheet to track the number of condoms distributed. The record sheet tracked whether the person collecting the condoms was male or female, youth or adult, and the number of condoms collected. Condoms were packaged in newspaper in packets of six at the Red Cross office. Condoms were distributed to eleven institutions around Sefhare. Most were in areas of high community traffic flow, such as a local bar, the immigration office, and the local Ministry of Parliament’s office. During the month of April, I helped distributed 2,788 condoms to residents in the town of Sefhare.

Almost immediately, several challenges presented themselves. First, there was the challenge of recording the number of condoms distributed. At each institution the Red Cross visited, a contact person was chosen to keep a record of the condoms that were being taken. However, some institutions had trouble recording the number of condoms taken. For example, about a week after the RC dropped the first box of condoms to the Sefhare Land Board, the box was almost empty, yet only two people had recorded the condoms they had taken. One reason for this was that the contact person was often away from her desk and could not accurately track all of the condoms being taken. A secondary reason was that people were uncomfortable writing down themselves that they had taken condoms. This was resolved with a conversation with several of the Land Board staff reinforcing the need to track condoms for monitoring and evaluating purposes, and that if they continued to not track condoms, the RC would not keep supplying. When the Land Board received their second box, the number of condoms distributed was more accurately tracked. 

A second problem was communication. When each institution was given their box, they were told to call the Red Cross when a new box was needed. However, several institutions did not call to request more condoms when they were out. For example, the Sefhare Primary School went through their box of condoms within three days, yet no one called to request a new box. A follow-up discussion was made with the institutions that had difficulty calling to request new condoms, and the responsibility of the contact person to call and request more condoms was further emphasized.

The last problem (and biggest) was transportation and supply. There were several institutions that distributed condoms at a rapid rate, however RC supply was inadequate to keep up with the demand. In addition, for most of April, the Red Cross combi did not have petrol, and was unable to help pick up condoms from the hospital and transport them to the different institutions. Furthermore, because of holiday breaks, the combi was unavailable to assist in condom distribution and collection. These problems persisted up until July, at which point I scheduled an appointment with the hospital to resolve the transportation and supply problems.

To resolve the problems with transportation and supply and communication, I approached the hospital with the following solution: At the beginning of each month, one member from the Red Cross will accompany the hospital car as it drives through Sefhare to drop off condoms. The number of boxes of condoms dropped off at each institution will be based on an estimated amount that the organization will go through during the month. For example, the Immigration Office went through about four boxes of condoms for the month. Therefore, at the beginning of the month four boxes of condoms will be dropped off. This will cut down on transportation time to the different institutions, as well as keep institutions supplied with condoms, so they don’t need to constantly call RC. 

In addition, an added benefit to the hospital taking over transportation will ensure that the project remains sustainable on both the hospital side and the Red Cross side. A sustainability problem I had was that my Field Officer and counterpart in the project was transferred to Gaborone, and therefore could not continue the project when I was away for trainings and workshops. Thus, organizations did not receive condoms for most of May, June and July. On the plus side, institutions we had supplied with condoms kept calling and requested more condoms because the demand for them was high. This let me know that condom distribution within Sefhare was needed and people were using the condoms. Thus, in order to ensure sustainability, the hospital will be in more control over the condom distribution process by providing distribution of the condoms, while Red Cross will be in charge of monitoring condom distribution. This will ensure that even after I leave, the project will be sustainable, as I have trained Red Cross members in tracking the numbers of condoms distributed in Sefhare.

The condom distribution campaign is the first project in Sefhare that I carried out as part of my Peace Corps service. I had helped on projects at the Red Cross before, but never had I spearheaded one myself. I am proud of the impact that it has had on the community and the direct effect it will have on promoting safer sex practices for youth and adults of both genders. In future blog articles, I will post results of the condom distribution campaign from different months so you can all see the allocation of condom use in Sefhare.

The Pitfalls of Sustainability

At the beginning of Peace Corps, during PST, every Peace Corps Volunteer was talking about their “failed projects” and how we will eventually have projects that fail. I resolved never to have that happen to me. Unfortunately, it did.

One of the first projects that I started in my village was a Karate Club. My intention was to start it and center it on informing community members about Gender Based Violence, in addition to teaching them simple self-defense moves.  I was so excited to get started! I had about 20 people signed up, and I was ready to go. However, my excitement soon turned to dismay. The first month that Karate Club started, no one came. Why? It was the rainy season. It rained almost every single day for about a month when Karate Club first started. Because Batswana walk everywhere, and most don’t have cars, Batswana don’t usually brave the elements and go out. This included going to Karate Club.

However, after that first month of disappointment, I soon had about five people who came to Karate Club on a regular basis. I was teaching them my style of karate, Uechi-Ryu, of which I have a black belt in. My little sister just tested for her second-degree black belt, and so I was inspired to start karate up again. It was incredibly challenging. Not everyone came to every class, and so having one teacher teaching five people all at different levels was tricky. However, against all odds, I managed, and I managed to graduate everyone to their first stripe on their white belts.

Then, disaster struck.

Karate was two times a week, for an hour each. However, soon I became too busy to maintain that schedule. I was leaving Sefhare for workshops and trainings almost every month and couldn’t keep a consistent schedule. I eventually had to tell the members of Karate Club that I couldn’t keep the classes going. I was disappointed, but not being able to have a consistent Karate Club schedule was stressing me out. Also, it wasn’t fair to Karate Club members if I couldn’t keep the schedule I had created.

The failure of Karate Club was my first lesson in sustainability. I never envisioned my karate class lasting beyond my service. No one in my town knew my style of karate, but that didn’t matter. My plan was to train the members of Karate Club in GBV and basic self-defense, and then they would inform other community members about what they had learned. It was supposed to be a short-term project. However, I never envisioned that I would become so busy that I couldn’t maintain it even short-term. Thus, my first lesson in sustainability was this: always make sure that you have a clearly defined timeline for projects you want to carry out. I wanted my project to be “short-term,” but I didn’t define short-term. How short was it? One month? Two months? Six months? I didn’t have a time frame, and therefore couldn’t plan at the start of the club to make sure that I could carry out and finish the project.

My second lesson in sustainability was this: always make sure that you have a community partner to carry out projects with you. If I had located an enthusiastic member of Karate Club and trained them separately on the topics I wanted to discuss with the group, they could have continued without me when I was busy, and helped shoulder the burden, ensuring a sustainable project.

While failing at a project was not something I ever wanted to have happen to me, I am glad it happened. It has given me a better understanding of steps that I have to take to ensure that future projects are successful and sustainable.

Running Blog: Weeks 8-9

For these next two weeks I am participating in the beginning of a series of five GLOW camps in the Central District of Botswana. I will write a blog post about the camps later on. However, in summation, the camps are for four days each, and about 40 at-risk youth attend each camp. Sessions run from 8 am to 8 pm almost every day, and are on the topics of life skills, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence.

Because of the camps, and how exhaustive they are, running for these next two weeks has been a little tricky. Because I am partially in charge of logistics, and am facilitating sessions, I have to get up very early and run (so early I have to run with my headlamp). Luckily, there are three other PCVs attending the camp with me who are also training for the marathon, and therefore also have to run early. It is exhausting but the exercise helps mitigate the general stresses of the camp.

In any event, running with a headlamp makes me feel badass. And like a true runner. And it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

Running Blog: Week 7

So. Sick.

I drank jojo water (not the cleanest, and it really should be boiled before consuming) because the water was out and I was really thirsty. As a result, I probably gave myself a parasite, and myself sick. Bad life decision. Whoops.

No running this week as I recover.

Running Blog: Week 6

I am following a Hal Higden, 11 week Novice 2 training schedule. The weekday runs usually go as follows:

·      Monday: rest

·      Tuesday: 3 mi

·      Wednesday: 4 mi

·      Thursday: 3 mi

·      Friday: rest

·      Saturday: long run, each weekend run increases in mileage until running 12 miles the weekend before the race

·      Sunday: cross training

As I get closer to the marathon date, the 3, 4, 3 miles runs during the week turn into 3, 5, 3 miles and 2, 3, 2 miles the week before the race.

My body feels a lot stronger now, and my mile time has decreased. However, as a result of my training, I am hungry ALL THE TIME. I am really trying not to snack but it is so hard!