KAO uses sport, life skills and self awareness methodology to motivate and maintain positive behaviour among young people. “For me KAO is a creative initiative that takes into consideration all facets of youth development; so far sport is the most apt vehicle to achieve this development.” Ato Rockcliffe KICKING AIDS OUT!
UTT students implement KAO at vacation camps
HIV/AIDS affects over 260, 000 persons in the Caribbean and is the leading cause of deaths in some Caribbean countries, this coupled with a growing trend of explicitly sexually-charged media, makes it imperative that younger and younger children along with adolescents and young adults, have access to relevant and up to date information concerning the sensitive issue of HIV/AIDS and, by extension, other sexually transmitted infections (STI’s).
The case is even more severe in the African region where the Kicking Aids Out (KAO) network was formed. The KAO program uses sport as a tool to help educate youth about HIV/AIDS, and since its inception in 2001 it has grown tremendously.
As the network grew so did the goal, and the focus changed from not only sharing much needed information, but also to train young people so that they could take the message back to their peers. Now there are over 100 trained peer leaders across Caribbean.
These peer leaders are trained and skilled in discussing sensitive issues, condom usage and demonstration, sex and sexuality, reproductive and general health information.
The KAO initiative has been in existence in the Caribbean for 5 years and is implemented primarily through the Caribbean – Healthy Lifestyle Program and TTASPE with support from Commonwealth Games of Canada (CGC) and Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP). In May of 2009 a novel approach was taken to train and certify 35 UTT students as Peer Leaders to implement the KAO activities. As part of their certification students were required to conduct KAO sessions at Vacation camps coordinated across the country by the Sport Company of Trinidad & Tobago. Participants ranged from 7-17 and peer leaders adapted their delivery styles and content accordingly for specific groups.
The initiative – a partnership between UTT and The Trinidad and Tobago Alliance for Sport and Physical Education (TTASPE) - was piloted this year during the months of May to August with training taking place May-July and implementation July – August. . Peer leaders worked with over 600 students at 24 camps. The students learned the power of sport in tackling social issue, in this case HIV/AIDS awareness and education.
The course, which covered an entire semester titled Youth Sport programming, used as its core content the KAO peer leader training, titled Sport and Social Issues, and formed part of the students’ introduction to sport for development. Through this course more than 30 new peer leaders were trained.
During the course the new peer leaders were required to create fun new games that embodied the essence of the KAO approach. Materials had to be educationally sound and accurate and be developmentally appropriate for the target audience.At the end of every game there was a debriefing where the participants shared their thoughts on the game experience in terms of life-skill messages, HIV/AIDS messages and sport skills.
One new peer leader reflected saying, “I never imagined that I can share life saving and life changing information while having fun and watching the beneficiaries have fun also.” One young person at the camp reflected “I feel happy with my experience at this camp and I am more comfortable with whom I am and I can say no to uncomfortable situations if I do not want to do it.”
At one camp, for 7 – 11 year olds, a game called Football Fever was played. This activity used the well-loved game of football with a twist on various traditional football drills and skills. It is an intense fun pack thrill where kids get moving, shuffling and kicking while learning about HIV and AIDS issues and life lessons. Football fever can be used for all ages. Different football drills [simple to complex] can be used for different ages; different ball sizes and various lessons can be taught to accommodate the diversity of participants. More critical life lessons and issues can be addressed with older participants while education and FUN is the primary focus with young kids.
The goal was ‘To educate youths about the issues dealing with HIV and AIDS, different life skills and incorporate various sport skills while having fun and learning a new game’.
As part of its certificate program in Sport Studies, the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), has included “Sport and Social Issues” as a way to give students a more holistic educational experience and get them more involved in community work – using sport as a tool to tackle various social issues. This pilot activity has gotten extremely good reviews by camp coordinators and peer leaders. The approach is presently being reviewed with the intent of replicating. The major challenge at this stage is to keep the new peer leaders engaged in other KAO activities.
KAO - Changing Behaviours
From May to July the Kicking AIDS Out! peer educators attached to EDACSC – the community club in Speyside - focused on the implementation of the THA/EU funds project in partnership with the Speyside, Roxborough and L’Ansforumi Village Councils, in the advancement of the KAO Pilot Project supported by TTASPE, THA and UNICEF. TTASPE’s KAO Caribbean Coordinator, Ato Rockliffe completed 2 new visits to Speyside in order to monitor the progress of the activities and reinforce the capacity of the group of peer educators. A total of 3 new workshops in Speyside, one workshop in Roxborough, and several planning meetings took place during under the coordination of TTASPE and EDACSC.
A two day workshop on HIV and AIDS prevention was delivered at the Speyside Community Centre on the 1st and 2nd of May 2009 with a total of 13 young people and adults from Speyside. The workshop was facilitated by two certified leaders from Kicking AIDS Out! in the Caribbean Region. The workshop in Speyside was successful in reinforcing the knowledge of the Kicking AIDS Out! peer educators and new volunteers on HIV/AIDS - ways of transmission, strategies to fight myths and misconceptions, as well as stigma and discrimination and building up on the skills of the participants as educators/peer leaders of their community on HIV/AIDS prevention.
Kicking AIDS Out is an international network of sport for development NGO’s, organizations and national sport structures working as a collective to raise awareness about how sport and physical activity programs can be adapted to promote dialogue and education about HIV and AIDS and to facilitate life-skills training. Kicking Aids Out has been training Peer Leaders in Speyside for the past 12 months thanks to the pilot project supported by THA and UNICEF.
There was also a two day workshop on communication for behaviour change that was delivered at Speyside Community Centre on the 8th and 9th of May 2009 by Onika Henry and Tamara Chance, facilitators attached to the THA HIV/AIDS Coordinating Secretariat for a total of 15 volunteers.
The workshop was successful in its objective to train participants from Speyside in the production of awareness messages on HIV/AIDS prevention. These messages were developed with active involvement from the participants after two days of discussions that challenged some of the sensitive issues surrounding theHIV/AIDS in Tobago: sex and sexuality, condoms use and purchase, stigma and discrimination and gender issues. Some of the vulnerabilities of young people to HIV/AIDS transmission were also discussed among the participants during the workshop including substance abuse, incest, early sexual initiation, sexual abuse, multiple partnerships and unprotected sex. The creativity of the young people involved in the activity was decisive for the production of a set of powerful messages to be disseminated in the community. The messages will be further defined by the core group of KAO with support from THA HIV/AIDS Communication and Community Outreach Officials in order to print a set of posters, stickers and bookmarkers. The workshop was also instrumental to bridge some of the intergenerational communication gaps existing in Speyside around sex and sexuality.