know your status

Know your status. That is one of the key messages that GRS strives to convey during interventions. Know your status. Be aware of whether or not you are HIV positive. Know your status. Only by knowing your status can you take the necessary steps towards maintaining a healthy life-style. Know your status.

In Skillz 1.1 (the GRS curriculum that is delivered to students in Grade 6 and Grade 7) participants play a game called “Find the Ball.” I think this is a pretty ingenious game. For this game, participants are divided into two teams. Each team faces the other team and lines up shoulder to shoulder with their hand behind their back.

Two teams ready to play Find the Ball.

Once each team is set up the coaches place a tennis ball into one of the participant’s hands. The teams then have to pass this ball up and down their respective line without letting the other team see. Teams pass the ball until their coach yells stop.

Stealthily passing the ball.

Then comes the really fun part; participants on each team take turns guessing who on the other team has the tennis ball. It is absolutely hilarious watching these kids guess which of their classmates has the tennis ball. After a few rounds of playing, the coach then writes “HIV” on each of the tennis balls and the participants play the same game, but this time the tennis ball represents HIV. The game is played the same way and the kids try to guess who has the ball the same as they did during earlier rounds and discovering who has the ball still proves to be just as difficult. And therein lies the magic of this game; you can’t tell if a person has HIV just by looking at them. So how then can you know your status? The only way to know your status is to get tested for HIV. I’ve watched three different coaches play “Find the Ball” with their kids and the effect is always the same; the kids actually get it.

Coach Bucs leading a discussion after Find the Ball.

I know my status. I know my status because today at Skillz Street I got tested. Not only did I get tested, but I also planned and carried out GRS Kimberley’s first ever Skillz Street testing day. A surprising amount of work went into planning this testing day and at the end of the day today I was exhausted, but it was well worth it.

Mbumbi getting tested (he gave me permission to take his picture).

What was so special about today was that I got to see a group of 12- to 15- year-old girls, who just weeks ago would most likely have not willingly gotten tested, line up and get tested for HIV. The best part of the day was when I overheard one girl telling a classmate (a boy who is not in Skillz Street) that she was getting tested because it is important to know your status. I was so impressed by this. Just think about it – I had absolutely no reason to think that I was going to test positive for HIV and I was a little nervous going into the testing (bear in mind – I don’t like needles). So imagine how a 12-year-old girl living in South Africa, where the HIV prevalence rate is the highest in the world, must feel walking in to get an HIV test for the first time.

Girls lined up outside the testing room, waiting their turn to be tested.

But these girls did it. Sixty girls got tested. Sixty girls now know their status. Sixty girls overcame a challenge that most American children will never have to face. Sixty girls are learning what it takes to become leaders in the fight against HIV in South Africa. Sixty girls helped further my conviction that Grassroot Soccer and prevention-based curriculum can indeed make a difference. And these sixty girls have inspired me to work even harder to make the next Skillz Street and the next testing days even better. 

Girls in a Q&A session with the Department of Health. The DoH came to
the school in order to conduct the testing. During testing GRS coaches act
as supporters and counsellors for all of the girls.