total mind f*@#

I spent the past three days at GRS Headquarters in Cape Town participating in a Skillz Street Curriculum Development Workshop (CWD). What does that mean? It means that I spent the last three days locked in a conference room at war with some truly brilliant minds.

And there was sweat and there were tears and there were lots and lots of GRS energizers. And there were ideas flying rapidly around the room, and there were reality checks that stopped some people in their tracks and there were moments when the room was completely split upon the best way to move forward. But at the end of it all, after three mentally exhausting days, the group produced the semblance of and end result about which everyone is happy and excited. And for me, participating in this CDW (as the lone representative from Kimberley) was the best thing (related to work) that I have done since arriving in South Africa.

This is what just one wall in the conference room looked like.

Instead of writing pages about the fruitful discussions we had (which would be easy considering I took 16 pages worth of notes). I’m going to just tell you about some of the highlights.

The first was a presentation given by Rebecca Hodes from the University of Cape Town. She talked about positive living and risk management. She made a great point – usually when people hear or think about sex, they think about love and passion and orgasms. But, HIV – a life-changing disease – is transmitted through this passionate, fun, orgasmic sex. Sometimes the immediate fun, passionate, orgasmic part makes it hard to grasp the consequences of having unprotected sex.

Furthermore, in Africa, HIV ‘exceptionalism’ exists. For most people, contracting HIV is viewed as one of the worst things that can happen to you. But the reality is that HIV is treatable! New research suggests that if everyone who had HIV was getting treatment (anti-retral virus/ ARV’s), then we could have and HIV free generation by 2050. In fact, in Amsterdam, it is worse to receive a cancer diagnosis than it is to receive an HIV-positive diagnosis. In short, it is possible to live a ‘positive’ life with HIV.

Especially when it comes to girls, our program tells/ teaches them to be responsible, but the reality is most of the young girls we reach don’t have control over their own lives and, “choice is kind of a luxury” for them.  We have to give them confidence and the ability to understand that they should try to avoid risk, but that it is not their fault if something happens to them.  We need to help teach these girls how to cope with their lives and even teach them to be strong mothers. Because another reality is that South Africa is a pro-natal society where motherhood is valued and even empowering in itself. If we can raise strong women so that they teach their sons not to rape and not to abuse women, then we will really change generations.

The conversations and debates that happened at the CDW have given me a lot to think about. I am excited for the new Skillz Street curriculum because I think it is going to address some key issues that really do affect girls living in South Africa. I am eager for next year because HQ gave me permission to ‘test-run’ and try out some new ideas that I have. But mot of all, I am hopeful. And I think that is a good attitude to start the New Year with

A graphic I made to help show what the CDW team hopes to include in
our new Skillz Street.