The reason I'm here...those other 200 hours during the week

So I know I have been slacking big time on the blogging...and instead of continuing to post about the amazing adventures I have been taking (don't worry those come next) I thought I should write about what I am actually doing here in Cape Town, South Africa, work wise.

I provide programme support for the SA programme Director and Country Director across all of the South Africa, Grassroot Soccer (GRS) sites (Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, Soweto/Joburg and Alexandra). So what does that mean exactly (just now starting to have a good handle on it all)?

In each of our SA sites we run school based interventions that use the Skillz curriculum developed by Grassroot Soccer Global. There are different interventions ran for different aged children and different objectives. For example, for primary school children (9-12 years old) we run Skillz 1.1, whereas for high-school children we use Generation Skillz that furthers the kids' knowledge of HIV/AIDS, but also starts to address gender based violence and overall gender norm issues. There is also an all girl's after school programme ran called Skillz Street that addresses issues specific to woman and the heightened risk they have towards HIV/AIDS (almost 1 in 3 women, aged 25-29 living in SA, are living with HIV). Lastly there are holiday programmes run across all of the sites during school breaks in order to provide safe and educated places for kids to hang out. In addition to interventions Grassroot Soccer also organizes testing tournaments across all 5 sites which consist of huge soccer tournaments that incorporates HIV testing (provided by local testing partners) incentives for teams in order to mobilize more of the community to get tested regularly.

I tell you this because there is a lot going on...now imagine how this all gets done...

At each site there is a team of local community volunteers (called Coaches) that is trained by the local GRS staff (made up of community members that have worked their way up from coaches to being able to manage people and events). The local GRS staff must work to recruit new coaches (within their community), new schools (work with the Life Orientation (our version of PE/health class) teachers and principals at each school and schedule interventions that run continually throughout the year. On top of that we have other events they have to plan throughout the year connected with FIFA and football for hope centres, and other partners.

The Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha staff...with a few missing

So my job...is to support this whole process...(with help of course)

From a SA programme management side we must make sure that all sites are functioning (which includes anything and everything....finance, car logs, etc.), are reporting (everything is donor based so if its not being tracked its not being funded) and are hitting our targets (44,000 new kids will be reached in South Africa by GRS by the end of 2012).

It is, however, not just about supporting this process. It is about supporting the people that make GRS what it is....the coaches, the local staff...the local partner organizations. It is understanding what cultural implications there are, what development skills people have. How many emails and phone calls made before you get a response. It is, for me, taking a step back to realize that it is a whole different world here. Not better, not worse...just different. Efficiency here has an entirely different meaning and when someone says "ok" you better triple check with three other people before you can put a check mark on your to do list (I have a whole new check list system...). It is about enjoying the stories that each person has to offer. It is learning how to pronounce the hundred silent letters in names. It is about making their lives a little bit easier and about learning what makes their communities work. It is watching a four year old boy carry his 1 year old sister around because that is his job for the family. For every frustration there is a laugh and a smile and for that I am grateful and loving what I am doing.

Pre-school programme in Khayeltisha

Along with helping SA programmes with the above I also work part of my time helping the Country Director with business development next steps (how to go after the private sector corporate social investment sector and how to target the government entities that get funding from the SA, the US and the UK). Lastly I am filling the communications gap by doing the monthly newsletter (just let me know if you want a copy), helping to plan major visits to the sites and answering other random communication questions...

So if there is an email outstanding from me or a few hundred owed skype calls please know that I will get to them I promise, but in the mean time that is why I have been slacking at blogging! :)