Hello again blogsters,

We are glad to let you know that GAFFER has started HIV lessons again! At present these are mostly taught to the U16s football teams, but will move into the schools around the Kasigau region at the start of the academic year.

The lessons are taught by GAFFER’s VCs (village co-ordinators), who generally tend to be players for the men’s teams. So far we are training six highly reliable and dedicated VCs to do HIV lessons and we shall soon recruit eight more; this way all the villages can become better informed about HIV.

For the last three weeks the GAFFER team have taught at 3 schools around the region. This team has consisted of Mr Mohammed, a most experienced and all round brilliant teacher, the six VCs being trained, Esme (a mzungu who has been co-ordinating the HIV project), and myself – Mwololo. These lessons have not only helped educate the children, but have also provided the VCs with an opportunity to watch and learn from Mr Mohammed’s excellent teaching. GAFFER has been delighted to observe the warm welcome it has received from both teachers and pupils in these schools - providing us with hope for promising things to come.

Esme has also organised a two day seminar for the VCs in which Noah from Alive and Kicking shall help them improve their HIV teaching. We are looking forward to having much success on this front to bring us one step closer to an HIV free generation.

And one last thing – GAFFER would like to say a special thank you to Peter Kibigo who stepped in at the last minute to cover one Mr Mohammed’s HIV lessons. The photo for this blog is for you.