How to Make A Successful VCT Event

Tournament Participant Celebrates a goal in a PK shootout

A VCT (Voluntary Counseling & Testing) Event is one of Grassroot Soccer’s most effective ways to reach the broader community on a large-scale in just a single day.  The Malawi site for Grassroot Soccer is unique in this regard because every single one of our coaches are trained and licensed HIV testers and counselors.    Because of this we can plan events independently without having to worry about coordinating with testing partners.   We host these events roughly once a month (unless there are nationwide shortages of HIV Test Kits) with our target testing number usually around 150 people.  However, over the last two events we have really stepped up to find new and exciting ways to reach people and to encourage them to attend events and to know their status.  With the extraordinary efforts and ideas of our team we have managed to test 638 people over the last two events alone!

With the success of these events I feel like I've been able to learn a lot about planning an executing an event in a place where the only thing you can guarantee is that things will not go to plan.

1. The Success of an Event depends on work done well in advance.  This includes buying and organizing all of the necessary equipment and materials, organizing the teams, the music, entertainment, the venue, and even taking the car out into the communities with a megaphone, posters, and loud music to inform people about the upcoming event.

There are a lot of materials needed to be organized for events as you can see from the back of our car.

Poster on our car before going out into the community. (Translated to "Come Today for VCT & Soccer")

A mob of kids chasing the GRS-Mobile during sensitization (they actually climbed on top of the car and were "surfing" on the roof - it gets pretty intense sometimes)

2. Community Chiefs and Local Village Headmen are well respected in their communities and will help to encourage community members to attend events, while their presence at events will also command respect and support the messages.

Chiefs looking on during the Goals 4 Girls Event

3. A Good P.A. System WITH a Generator.  People love music and the P.A. system also allows us to share important messages and information on HIV/AIDS and other important topics while overall the speakers help us to keep things organized and on track.  With daily power outages, a generator for the sound system is a MUST.

William and Godfrey (Yellow T-Shirts) Taking the mic at Goals 4 Girls

4. Multiple Forms of Entertainment.  Soccer has a broad range of appeal, but it is also important to have other forms of entertainment available especially to attract women, children, and anyone just looking for an exciting time.

Local Community Children's Dance group at Chiuzira singing about the important of knowing your HIV status

Me in a dance off with a Gule Wamkulu, a traditional Malawian dancer (with costume)

5. Good Organization.  The day of events is always hectic and the more organized we are the better we can handle the inevitable hurdles that come our way.

The Roster for roles at Chizuira

6. Passionate and Committed Role Models.  Every single one of our coaches serves as a community role model and they are the face of GRS to the community.  Their work, dedication, and leadership by example is what enables GRS to be so successful.

Chisomo (left) and Linda (right) giving speeches at Goals 4 Girls.  Both are Grassroot Soccer coaches and stars for the Malawian Women's National Team

7. Having the right incentives.  Incentives can be as simple as a certificate of completion for GRS activities to T-Shirts and Jerseys for winning teams.  People here love receiving gifts and prizes, but it's important to combine this with positive action.  Another favorite are prizes for audience members correctly answering questions on HIV/AIDS information.

Goals 4 Girls Team with their certificates of completion

Godfrey Presenting Jerseys to the winning team at Chiuzira

8. TONS of Flexibility.  Things go wrong, ALWAYS.  That's one thing I've learned in my time in Malawi and you just have to be prepared to roll with the hits.  This may mean getting down and dirty to clean a classroom so it can be fit for testing, to prolonging a Final match for an extra 45 minutes so that we have time to get more test kits and test more community members.

Mel cleaning a classroom with a branch/broom before Goals 4 Girls

Me reffing during penalty kicks after extending the final by 45 minutes to allow more time for HIV testing

9. Increased Ownership to Site Coordinators to all them to use creativity.  Our site coordinators are for a large part responsible for organizing our events, especially in their areas.  Giving them freedom to choose on prizes, entertainment, venues, roles, etc. has already resulted in some incredible results and new ways of approaching our events.

Area 23 Site Coordinator, Cossam (yellow hat), running the show at his Chiuzira tournament

10. Having Available Test Kits.  There are frequent shortages of a lot of things in Malawi and one unfortunate example of this is HIV test kits.  There have been a couple of shortages in my time here, including at present that can lead to postponing or cancelling events because we can't test community members.

A sign directing community members to HIV testing

11. Things Relevant to that community.  Keeping it interesting for the community we're working in is essential to getting people to care about the messages and information as well as for ensuring good attendance at events.  One example of this is using local entertainers or prominent community members.

A Drama group at Chiuzira leading hordes of children around the venue while performing skits on HIV/AIDS

12. DANGER

George, who's nickname is "Danger" (center with red shirt), is a community health worker that has works our of Baylor with us and has been a strong supporter of our work and frequent attendee at our events.

Basically a lot has to come together for our events to be successful along with a fair amount of luck, but hopefully we'll be able to continue to build on what we've learned so far to have the most impactful and beneficial events possible for the remainder of 2012.

Random Acts of Malawi

It's been a while since I posted so I figured I'd just review some of what's been happening so far in life in Malawi 2012.

Fuel Lines

Bumper Cars

Fuel queues are something that have been an ever-present part of life in Malawi.  I've mentioned them before, but since the ongoing fuel shortage continues to play such a prominent role in our everyday lives and at times largely dictates both our work and personal lives I thought it was worth updating.  These photos show what can become complete chaos when a station receives fuel as cars will line up for kilometers waiting more than 8 hours for fuel (over half the cars in a line will generally not get fuel before the station runs out).  At the pumps there is very little keeping the situation from falling apart as cars pack in like I never thought possible as people jostle for any fuel available, often bribing attendants to get them to the pumps or to get more liters in their vehicles.

Soccer Matches

I'm on the far left in the yellow uniform.

The Baylor staff (mostly GRS coaches, along with other staff) after our match against African Bible College

At the Braii after the Kuche Kuche international match

I am still playing on most Sundays with the local Social Soccer Team, Kuche Kuche.  Additionally, there have been a couple of exhibition matches with staff from Baylor Clinic (where Grassroot Soccer is based out of in Malawi) against other teams.  The top picture is from an international exhibition match that Kuche Kuche had against a team from Zambia which we won 4-3.  After the match both teams went to a pub owned by one of our players where we had a big braii and all had a good time.

Taking Care of Business

Picture used in our ad for computer training lessons

Working as a volunteer in GRS Malawi can mean a lot of things.  Sometimes it's working on the computer creating flyers for events, managing tournament budgets, compiling testing and participant data, or giving computer lessons to our Malawian Staff.  The photo of Mel and I on computers was used in our computer lesson advertisement for the Grassroot Soccer Malawi newsletter (also made on computer).  As of now we have started lessons with 10 of our staff members all at various levels of proficiency and on different topics.

I mean look at that thing, it's adorable!

At other times, trips into the field might include visiting adorable kittens while picking up drinks for a graduation as is the case in this kitty picture.

Braiding head bands for Goals 4 Girls Event

And sometimes it's staying up late, under my mosquito net, braiding head bands for a girl's event the next day with no company but Nitin and Shane (photo on the wall on the left).  Basically I'm learning lots of new skills on the job.

Neighborhood Kids

Neighborhood kids dancing to Kamwile

There are always kids hanging around pretty much anywhere you go in Lilongwe (and Malawi in general).  These kids, from our neighborhood, frequently come over for mpira wa miendo (soccer) where we've started having impromptu coaching sessions with them.  Also, all children will break into immediate dancing upon hearing the hit song Kamwile which is what they're pictured doing here, just outside our car.