Undiluted LIfe Skills Program

That is the syllabus title of the Workshops that Think Twice, one of the Organizations I am interning this summer, does. The organization is a small NPO that conducts Sex Education and HIV/AIDS awareness workshops to teenagers aged 14-16 in schools.

Today was the first day of work and we were greeted by very friendly staff and I was thankful to go through a structured orientation/training. ( Because of the nature of the non-profit work, a lot of the NGOs/NPOs have a shortfall of staff and sometimes, they cannot afford resources to put into intern trainings. A friend of mine who works at a refugee center said his first day was spent sitting around; all the other staff were busy doing something else.) Although I was to play the role of a "teacher" when I help facilitate these programs in schools (next week), I feel like I am still a student, learning these issues.

To my surprise, South Africa is not as conservative as the Asian countries when it comes to sexuality (at least from what we discussed today, but perhaps it was the role of us, facilitators, to speak openly about these issues). People do discuss these and teenage pregnancies are the "norm" here. And unlike asian countries, or the research I had done before, gender dynamics were not discussed when it comes to sexually infected HIV transmissions. Instead, the trainers at Think Twice cite myths (it is believed that having sex with a virgin would cure HIV) and poverty as being responsible for HIV transmissions (and we didn't discuss transmission through needles either).

The syllabus looks comprehensive; covering the issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS i.e. how it is contracted, different stages, and the consequences of getting the infection on the victim and those around. But at the same time, I wonder how it would play out in the classroom situation with South African students. There are challenges I foresee in the classroom setting; the cultural barrier, the skills of a facilitator, the difficult and sometimes awkward questions that students may ask, and mostly, how I, as a foreigner who speaks these issues perhaps unsurely, with a different accent could affect the quality of these life skill lessons.

At least I would be doing it together with the permanent staff who have done this for several years. And they also suggest that I could bring up some practices in the places I have lived in before, so they know that this is not happening only in South Africa. (That could be my contribution. (: )

Statistics on HIV AIDS in South Africa
Highest in the World
24% infections (equal number of males and females infected)
1 in 4 men has confessed to raping ( I heard this from my roommate)



[Photo of my wonderful colleagues; Angie and Juliet coming up here]