Tackle Africa Coaches:
Alistair MaGowan (UK), Clive Fogelman (UK), Gudrun Jevne (UK), Paul Stevens (UK), Jason Weinrabe (UK), Mark Lomas (UK)

As well as sending six coaches from the UK, TackleAfrica was excited to invite Moses Kingango from Uganda as an additional coach. Moses is a key member of our partner, KCCC in Uganda with whom we have been working for several years.

Project Description:

(i) Kisumo (Western Province) & Siaya (Nyanza Province):
Date: August 10th – 22nd

For the first 2 weeks of the project, TackleAfrica partnered with an organisation called FRACODEP (St. Francis Community Development Programme) to run activities in both Kisumu (week 1) and Siaya (week 2). This was the 2nd successive year working with FRACODEP after a very successful pilot project in 2008. FRACODEP implements a range of HIV/AIDS projects in Western Kenya supporting HIV/AIDS orphans, widows and those living with HIV, and carries out several awareness on HIV/AIDS and safer behaviour activities in their Youth, AIDS and Behavioural Change Project.

Using a model that empowers local coaches to deliver HIV messaging, the TackleAfrica coaches successfully delivered coaching courses to 100 local football coaches, teachers and peer educators in both Kisumu and Siaya; with a specific focus on training the coaches to work with the TackleAfrica coaching manual. The courses in Kisumu and Siaya lasted 5 days each and included:

- Introducing and delivering the TackleAfrica Manual to the participants
- Interactive educational sessions on ‘How to be a Good Football Coach’ and ‘How to Structure a Coaching Session’
- Q&A session with an HIV/ medical expert
- Participants delivery of TackleAfrica drills with evaluation
- Award ceremony with certificates
- Local tournaments with TackleAfrica activity

As well as local coaches from the community, invitations to participate on the course were also extended to coaches and peer educators from other organisations in Kenya including; SAIPEH, MTGK and Alive & Kicking.

(ii) Mumias (Nyanza Province):
Date: August 24th – 29th

After the first 2 weeks, Clive Fogelman stayed in Kenya to visit an organisation in Mumias called SAIPEH (Support Activities in Poverty Eradication and Health). SAIPEH started as a small acting group who travelled around in their own time to local communities to deliver educational entertainment about HIV/ AIDS; most notably dispelling the many myths about how HIV infects and spreads. This was delivered in the mother tounges of the area i.e. the tribal language; contributing greatly to the effectiveness of the message. Using a range of creative formats to bring the message across, they are particularly concerned with getting their message into schools, as a way of bringing HIV out into the open and reducing the stigma that currently exists.

Together with Wanyama Nelson and Pamela Osore (2 coaches from SAIPEH who had completed the TackleAfrca coaching course in Siaya), Clive delivered a 4-day TackleAfrica coaching course for 25 local coaches and peer educators at Mumias Secondary School for boys. Using the same structure which had worked so well in Kusmu and Siaya, the program was hugely successful in Mumias, with many members of the public and the council supporting the program.

(ii) Kilifi (Kenya Coast):
Date: August 31st – September 5th

For the final week of the project, Clive visited MTGK (Moving the Goalposts Kilifi) a girls’ youth sports and development organisation in Kilifi on the coast of Kenya. MTGK set up a sport and development programme in 2001 and now has close to three thousand girl football players. It aims to promote football excellence, youth leadership, reproductive health rights and economic empowerment to help girls and young women escape the cycle of poverty most of them live in. HIV and AIDS awareness is a central element of their overall program and currently is mainly executed through their Peer Education program in schools and is predominantly a classroom based initiative. Working with TackleAfrica was an opportunity to take the message from the classroom to the field in an interactive and creative format.

This project also provided TackleAfrica with an excellent opportunity to understand some of the challenges that women specifically face in regard to HIV/ AIDS. Rather than run 1 course for a week, MTGK arranged for Clive to visit different areas in the coastal region where MTGK has set up football leagues for women and work with the different coaches in those areas. During the week, Clive worked with around 60 women in Mnarani, Vitengeni, Kaloleni and Ganze. Clive introduced and delivered drills from the Tackle Africa manual to the coaches from each division and set up discussion groups to explore the challenges that women face on the Coast.

About the locations:

The Western and Nyanza Provinces are both located in an extremely vulnerable area of Kenya with HIV prevalence estimated at around 30% (against the national prevalence of 7.5%). Within the region, the age group 15-30yrs has been devastatingly affected by the pandemic and available statistics indicate that the youth make up 33% of those infected. (Kenya national Youth Policy 2006). High HIV/AIDS prevalence in the region has been attributed to a number of issues. Retrogressive cultural practices like widow inheritance, upon the death of the husband, non-circumcision of men, as well as sexual promiscuity along the fishing beaches, and sugar cane plantation, are some of the issues in question. Coupled with this is the fact that the province also has the highest poverty prevalence rates in the country, standing at 65%.

The Coastal Province has also become increasingly affected by HIV. According to a recent United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, commercial sex tourism is growing rapidly on the Kenyan coast, and gaining increasing acceptance as a valid way of earning an income, spurred on by a flourishing tourism industry. There are often little alternatives to earn money elsewhere, and the promise of income often lures women away from the inland provinces. Of further concern, child sex work (CSW) has become increasingly apparent along the coast. Another study by the government and UNICEF found that up to 30 percent of teenagers in some coastal areas were involved in casual sex for cash.

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