Using Soccer to Teach....Finally!

After months of discussing my aspirations to use soccer to teach kids about health topics, I’m happy to report that I was finally able to accomplish this goal!  The trajectory of my service that led to this 4 day project goes something like this:

In May 2013, I took Ibrahim and another village counterpart to a training for volunteers and their counterparts run by an organization called Coaching for Hope.  The organization focuses on using soccer to teach young people about HIV/AIDS. The seven day training was a great experience for the Americans and Burkinabe that attended.  Burkinabe loved the facilitation techniques used by the coaches and often seemed to forget that they were being trained to teach others, not to play soccer.  At the end of the training, my counterparts were each given a soccer ball and a certificate for completing the training. 

Upon returning to village, however, I realized that implemented the Coaching for Hope program would be difficult.  As there is only a primary school in my village, middle school and high school students bike 5 km to the adjacent village to continue their schooling.  Unfortunately, the adjacent village isn’t in the coverage area of my health clinic, meaning I’m not supposed to be doing projects there.  And obviously primary school is a little too young to discuss sexual health, even if soccer is involved.

I was still determined to implement the program, so I convinced Ibrahim to come play soccer with a group of young men I’d been playing with on and off.  The guys were happy to get a couple new soccer balls, but they were confused when, after a week, Ibrahim and I sat them down and tried to explain the Coaching for Hope program.  These guys were already in school for 8 hours a day.  They just wanted to have some fun and play soccer until it got too dark to see.  So Ibrahim and I let them use the soccer balls we had gotten from Coaching for Hope until they were both broken.  To be fair, the guys took good care of the balls.  They lasted for 3 months, which is a long time by Burkina standards.  A group of Burkina children can destroy a soccer ball in a matter of days.

During the months June and July I continued to play soccer when I could, but Ibrahim lost interest and was spending most days working on a project based in Banfora.  However, during a June meeting of the HIV/AIDS Committee there was a ray of hope.  An NGO called Grassroots Soccer (GRS) had contacted Peace Corps Burkina and offered an array of partnership options for Peace Corps volunteers.  GRS is similar to Coaching for Hope, but they are a larger NGO, more focused on health education than soccer, and have a department specifically dedicated to forming partnerships with Peace Corps countries led by a former Zambia Peace Corps volunteer named Kristen.  I immediately volunteered to take the lead on communicating with GRS.

I discussed my aspirations with another volunteer on the committee, Alex, and we researched GRS partnerships opportunities.  We contacted Kristen and requested individual GRS kits, which the organization will send to Peace Corps volunteers free of charge.  During the research, we also found that GRS had an office in Cape Town, where I happened to be traveling to in mid-August.  I contacted Kristen and found that she worked in the Cape Town office.  We agreed to meet during my August vacation.

The meeting with Kristen was phenomenal.  We discussed the programs that GRS had developed specifically for PCVs and how GRS was involved in other Peace Corps countries.  It became obvious during our discussion that many other Peace Corps country offices have WAY more money to spend on trainings and projects than Burkina.  One of the reasons is the US Government’s PEPFAR initiative (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which allocates billions of dollars of aid money to fight HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.  Peace Corps offices in many of the countries in southern Africa with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates receive large chunks of PEPFAR funds. Burkina receives no PEPFAR funds due to the low HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country.

However, Kristen mentioned that GRS had leftover funds in the expansion portion of their budget and that she’d be open to working with PCBF to set up a training in January for volunteers and their counterparts.  Clearly this was an incredible opportunity, as GRS was offering to send a training team and materials.  I quickly emailed our acting country director to discuss adding the training to the end of the In Service Training of the new education group in January.  He promptly turned it down, claiming the budget had already been set for the 2014 fiscal year and that adding days to the IST would cost PCBF between $5,000 - $10,000 extra.  While his first point was true, his second assertion was completely false, as most hotels in Burkina run about $15-$20 per night and transport was already covered by the IST budget.  However, I was in no position to argue and informed Kristen of his decision before leaving Cape Town.  While neither of us were completely surprised after our respective Peace Corps experiences, we were still disappointed.  We agreed that GRS expansion in Burkina was going to have to be mainly volunteer-led.

In October, however, our Director of Programming and Training, Paul, met with Kristen during a Peace Corps training conference in South Africa and became interested in GRS.  He encouraged me to work with GRS to set up a training for the new group of education volunteers that had been sent to site at the end of August.  Clearly this was frustrating to hear after Kristen had offered exactly the same thing during our Cape Town meeting.  But he agreed to continue to work with me to set up a GRS training in the coming year.  Unfortunately, Paul resigned for family reasons the week after Thanksgiving.

After further discussions with Kristen, I realized that Paul had neglected to inform me that Peace Corps country offices pay GRS around $10,000 to conduct a training, not including the transport and lodging costs of participating volunteers and counterparts.  Kristen also informed me that GRS only allows certified trainers to conduct GRS trainings, which means that I wouldn’t be permitted to set up a GRS training of my own, regardless of any experience I gained implementing the programs.  Considering the budget for the entire fiscal year of 2014 for HIV/AIDS projects in Burkina is around $15,000, Peace Corps Burkina would never be able to afford an official GRS training.

During October, I was busy assisting with the training of the new group of volunteers, but we finally received our packages from GRS at the end of the month.  It was pretty discouraging to find that the kits took over 3 months to get from South Africa to Burkina, but not altogether surprising.  The kits contained the Peace Corps SKILLZ HIV/AIDS education program in both English and French, the Peace Corps SKILLZ Malaria program in English, monitoring/evaluation tools, a flash drive with electronic copies, and an “indestructible” soccer ball.

During November, I explained the GRS program to Ibrahim and consistently tried to work with him to translate the SKILLZ Malaria program to French.  This process was extremely frustrating for many reasons, but mostly because my written French is terrible and Ibrahim was super flakey with meetings due to continuing work with the project in Banfora.  He had told me his contract with the organization was done in November, but apparently they had asked him to stay on in some capacity or he was trying to make himself valuable enough for them to keep him on.  Either way, it became clear that this project was only happening because I wanted to do it, which is contrary to the development approach of the Peace Corps but seemed to be the only way to accomplish my goal. 

My plan was to finish writing out the French translation at site, then type it up and print it out during a Thanksgiving trip to Ouaga.  I can’t exactly use my computer for long periods of time at site due to lack of electricity.  During translation, I also realized that the SKILLZ Malaria program could be organized better and needed to be adapted to the Burkina context, which involved updating the English manual as well.  Combined with the fact that I wasn’t getting much help with the translation, I didn’t accomplish as much as I thought I would at site.

When I arrived in Ouaga, I dedicated an entire day to working on the English and French versions of the SKILLZ Malaria program.  I realized that it was the first time I had sat down to do actually work at a computer in over a year.  Gone was my college era ability to sit down at a computer and crank out a 10 page research power in 8 hours.  So I trudged through a day of work, accomplishing less than half of what I planned to.  I took an extra day in the capital and still didn’t finish, but that may have been due to an intense food hangover the day after Thanksgiving.  I was getting burnt out so I decided to finish and edit the program at site, then print out the finished version in a regional capital.   

One of the key obstacles to any project in Burkina is the issue of money.  PCVs have to convince any counterparts they work with to volunteer their time. If you need money to buy materials for a project, you can apply for a grant from the Peace Corps office, you can find a person (or people) in the  community who will donate to the project, or you can pay out of your own pocket (clearly not recommended).  Luckily, I didn’t have to deal with any of these options, as there were leftover soccer balls and mosquito nets from a Science Camp that I had helped out at during September.  The volunteer who organized the camp was kind enough to leave the leftover supplies in Bobo, which I picked up on my way back to site.

When I returned to site after Thanksgiving, it took me about a week to get Ibrahim to set up a meeting with the director of the primary school.  We met and the director agreed to dedicate 3 afternoons to the SKILLZ program, which Ibrahim and I agreed was enough time to fit in the 4 practices of the program.  Unfortunately, I was going to traveling to Ouaga again for the Swear In ceremony of the new volunteers and wouldn’t be returning from the capital until a day before the project, which left little time for preparation. I gave him the completed manual before I left and asked him to read it and be prepared when I returned.

I met with Ibrahim the day after I got back from Ouaga and we briefly discussed the program for the first day of SKILLZ Malaria. While he claimed to have read the manual, it was pretty clear that he hadn’t.  Luckily he’s about as good at improvisation as Burkinabe can get. We showed up to the school to start the program and of course no one was there.  The kids usually get a half day on Thursdays, so even though the director had told them to come back at 3pm, there were no guarantees.  By 4pm, though, around 30 kids had showed up and we were able to start.

The first practice focused on the basics of malaria, making sure kids understood that it’s a serious disease that can kill you, which people often don’t acknowledge in village.  We used the game “Bed Net Ball,” to illustrate the basics of malaria prevention.  Three teams used bed sheets to throw a ball as high as they could in the air and then catch it.  The concept of “teamwork” is not well understood by Burkinabe children, so Ibrahim and I quickly realized that we had to demonstrate how to work together to throw the ball up in the air and catch it.

After the kids could successfully throw the ball up in the air and catch it, we told them that the bed sheet represented a mosquito net and the ball represented a mosquito with malaria. The goal of the game was to throw the ball as high as they could into the air and then cover themselves with the “mosquito net” before the ball hit the ground.  Anyone who wasn’t covered when the ball hit the ground got “malaria” and had to go see the major at the health clinic (a coach standing between the groups) to get prescribed medicine (a high five).  The game was a huge hit.  Burkinabe children don’t get to play organized games very often (if it all), which makes teaching them one incredibly difficult, but makes even the most childish games extremely popular with youth of any age.

Bed Net Ball!

Friday afternoon we ran into a variety of different problems.  All of the kids were at school in the afternoon, but we were only doing the SKILLZ program with the oldest class of 30-40 kids.  Luckily we had made an attendance sheet the day before and called role to make sure we got the same group of kids. Apparently, the teachers were neglecting to teach the other classes that afternoon.  This made the next hour an exercise in herding away the Burkinabe kids who weren’t participating, which can only honestly be accomplished by threatening to hit them.  While I wasn’t comfortable doing this, Ibrahim was.  I guess that’s what counterparts are for!

The second practice was focused on proper mosquito net usage.  After a brief warm up, four teams competed to set up a mosquito net properly using string tied to whatever tree branches or other forms of support the kids could find.  After the groups were finished, we walked around with everyone and critiqued the setup, asking the kids to fix any problems.  Clearly the main goal of the competition was to reinforce proper bed net usage, but the exercise was also designed to demonstrate that mosquito nets can be set up anywhere, both inside and outside.  Many Burkinabe sleep outside during the hot season without mosquito nets, leading to hundreds of unnecessary cases of malaria.

How many kids can fit under a mosquito net?

The last two practices were to be conducted on Saturday afternoon, which Ibrahim and I both had reservations about.  Kids only have school for half the day before they are released for their weekend.  But Sunday was an even worse option, as most Burkinabe dedicate the day to family and expect kids to be at home.  Saturday afternoon we prepared and went to the school, but only about 20 out of the 35 kids who had participated in the program showed up.  I wanted to reschedule the sessions for Monday, but the school director wasn’t home and he wasn’t picking up his phone.  We told the kids that we there weren’t enough people to complete the program that afternoon and they were legitimately disappointed.  They asked how many kids they needed and promised to get at least 30 people from their class to the school tomorrow morning.  I was pretty blown away because Burkinabe kids rarely plan ahead to make time for health education, but clearly that was one of the benefits of designing health education around soccer.  We decided to trust the kids and told them we would come to the school at 9am the next day.

The third practice focused on proper treatment of malaria, emphasizing the risks of using traditional medicine and/or street medicine.  Many Burkinabe will buy malaria medicine from traveling salesmen who assure them that it is better quality than the medicine from the health clinic.  Burkinabe also still hold traditional healers in high esteem, depending on the community.  After reviewing the symptoms of malaria and the risks of taking street and traditional medicine, we divided the kids into six teams and played “Health Ball.” The goal of the game was to pass the ball as many times as possible between the members of the team without letting it touch the ground.  The twist was that half the teams were given a regular soccer ball and the other half a tiny plastic ball.  We switched the balls between teams then brought the group together to watch two teams compete.  We told them that both teams had been infected with malaria. The team with the soccer ball had gone to the CSPS to get prescribed medicine, while the team with the small ball had taken street medicine.  The first team to make 5 successful passes “got healthy.”  The kids tended to care way more about the unfairness of the competition than the overarching health message, but I think we got the point across.

Easier to pass with a soccer ball = Easier to cure malaria with the proper medication

The last practice was designed to encourage the kids to confront malaria risks in the community and educate others.  We used the concept of a red card in soccer to illustrate how to confront risky behaviors.  We had come up with short theater sketches that illustrated common scenarios of prevention, adherence, and treatment.  All of the kids were given a red card and told to silently “give it” when they viewed a risky behavior in each sketch.  Each sketch was followed by a discussion of why the red card was given and whether or not it was a common scenario in village.  Ibrahim and I demonstrated the first sketch then called on volunteers to play the roles in a few more.  They pretended to take traditional medicine, cut mosquito nets, and refuse to go to the health clinic while their peers gave them red cards for each risky behavior.  They loved it.

Giving the Red Card

Red Card Skit

Evaluation of the SKILLZ program was conducted through a small activity at the beginning of each practice called “Take a Stand.”  We would ask the students to close their eyes, then read potentially controversial statements about malaria and ask the students to put their hands on their heads it they agreed.  After we noted the results, we had the students open their eyes and called on volunteers to defend their position.  It was difficult to make sure the children were being honest and not just following the group, but there were still a few kids who would argue the wrong side of each statement. The last practice was then followed by a post test consisting of the “Take a Stand” statements of each practice.

After the last practice, Ibrahim and I sat down to eat some chicken at a new bar in town that is conveniently located right next to the primary school.  We chose a live chicken and the waitress took care of the rest, delivering an amazing grilled chicken 45 min later.  I’m not sure if it was the occasion, the papaya we cut up as an appetizer, or the actual chicken, but it was one of the best I’ve had in Burkina.

Overall, I’m extremely happy that I was finally able to complete this project.  I was able to observe a clear improvement in the students’ comprehension of malaria prevention and treatment through the soccer program. I’m planning to discuss the SKILLZ Malaria program with the Community Health Agents in the two other villages within my health clinic’s coverage area to see if we can implement it at those primary schools as well.  I’m also working with the HIV/AIDS committee to get the GRS HIV/AIDS materials to a small group of volunteers in the new education stage to implement at their site.  Hopefully these experiences will provide a catalyst for the expansion of Grassroots Soccer programs in Burkina Faso.

Peace Corps is notoriously bad at providing volunteers with actual materials and programs to implement at their site.  Grassroots Soccer is an organization that recognizes this shortcoming and is actively working to address it.   Not to mention their methods of monitoring and evaluating the SKILLZ programs are miles ahead of anything taught by Peace Corps.  I specifically remember a moment in the Cape Town office when Kristen showed me a graphic breakdown of GRS involvement in individual Peace Corps countries.  It blew me away after dealing with the MS-DOS retro results reporting program of Peace Corps.  The level of competence and adaptability of Kristen and other members of the Grassroots Soccer staff has been extremely refreshing after dealing with the stifling bureaucracy of Burkinabe organizations and the Peace Corps Office here.

But nothing that’s easy is ever worth doing right?  Except making a quesadilla in the microwave.  Or lying on the beach. Damn that’s not a good maxim at all.

It's hard to get people to sleep under these things.  This one was just being used in a friendly game of tug of war between village dogs