Voluntary Counseling and Testing Tournament

I apologize for my blog absence over the last two months. With a surprise trip home for Christmas and settling back into the daily Kimberley routine, I’ve somehow left my blog behind. Now that I’m finally facing the task of getting you up to speed, it makes sense to start chronologically….bringing us to the VCT we hosted on December 5th, in honor of World AIDS Day (December 1st).

VCT stands for Voluntary Counseling and Testing. Grassroot Soccer has adopted the VCT concept and combined it with soccer and the Skillz curriculum. A Grassroot Soccer VCT occurs during one day, with the goal of making participants comfortable with the idea of testing for HIV and testing as many community members and participants as possible. This event was especially important to me because I was placed in charge of it. From delegating tasks to the other interns to ensuring that our testing partners were committed, everything ultimately fell back on me.

Our VCT occurred in Galeshewe, the local township, on two large dirt pitches (grass fields are hard to come by). We recruited eight girls’ soccer teams and eight boys’ soccer teams from the community to compete in separate tournaments. In addition to these teams’ own coaches, they were paired with one of our Skillz coaches for the day. In their down time, between matches, the teams went through two Skillz games – My Supporters and Find the Ball. These games were chosen because they emphasize the importance of supporting one another, erasing stigma associated with HIV and getting tested to know your status. Prior to the optional testing portion of the tournament, coaches also shared their Coach’s Story. Coach’s Story is an integral part of GRS that allows coaches to share a story of their own resiliency, often related to HIV. By telling these stories, coaches reveal their own vulnerability and triumph, thereby creating a space in which participants feel more comfortable opening up to coaches about their own struggles.

Playing "Find the Ball" with Skillz Coaches


The day started off fairly smoothly, with teams learning the tournament rules and being introduced to their Skillz coach. Our first testing partner arrived and began to setup. According to the schedule, each team would have a break in playing to visit the testing tents and proceed with the optional counseling and testing. Anyone interested in testing must be at least fourteen years old. First, they go through a round of pre-counseling that usually lasts between ten and fifteen minutes. It ensures that they understand the process they are about to undergo and are prepared to handle their results, whether positive or negative. The counselors also discuss the person’s behavior to assess whether or not they are at high risk for HIV. All of this occurs in a confidential, enclosed tent. Following pre-counseling, if the person still wishes to proceed, they enter a new tent to undergo their HIV test. It is done with a simple pin-prick of the finger. The tester then analyzes the blood for the amount of antibodies and gives the results to the post-counselor. In the last test, the post-counselor provides the results to the individual. People who test positive are offered immediate support and referred to a local clinic to begin testing. Overall, HIV testing is incredibly important because people who are positive can begin treatment to live more healthily and they can take the proper steps to prevent spreading the virus to others.


The testing part of the tournament was the part I was most excited about and the part for which I was most responsible. Thus, I was extremely frustrated and disappointed with both myself and our testing partners when it became obvious that the testing component was not adequate to handle the number of people we wanted to test. At the previous year’s VCT, well over 300 people had tested. Granted, their event was the finale of a national Sports Heroes Walk, which featured multiple sports stars, but I still believed that we could reach large numbers with our event. We had placed posters and handed out flyers in the township and even been featured on the radio station to advertize our event. Things were looking good.

The problem arose when I began talking to our first testing partner and realized that they brought fewer than 50 testing kits, which meant that they could not test more than 50 people that day. They also brought numerous counselors, but only one tester. Before the teams even had the option to test, community members had already flooded the testing tents and created a major backlog. Panic set in as I realized that the participants would not be able to test if they desired. I decided to phone the Department of Health, which had made a habit of ignoring me despite my persistent visits to their office and phone calls. A woman answered and after a discussion about testing kits and my explaining that I would drive anywhere in town to pick her up and get the testing kits, she hung up and turned off her phone. Exasperated, I pleaded with our first testing partner about where we could find extra kits. I was willing to buy kits or drive their staff anywhere, such as their office to get more, but they insisted that the Department of Health was the only place they could get them and with the office closed on Saturday and our one contact eliminated, I was helpless.

The testing problem was only compounded by the fact that our second and typically more reliable testing partner had yet to arrive and it was almost noon. I called them numerous times and was finally able to make contact. They had apparently decided to be part of an opening ceremony for tourism in Galeshewe, rather than arrive early in the morning, as we had previously agreed numerous times. However, when they finally arrived, I was just relieved to have another testing partner to begin testing our participants. The relief was short lived, as I quickly learned that they also brought only one tester and could test a maximum of 35 people. Although I knew they had a training for some of their employees in Johannesburg, they did not inform me that they would be able to test so few people. They had numerous kits, but they focus on quality pre and post counseling. I fully support and appreciate this aspect of their work, but I was still desperate to be able to test more participants from the tournament. So, in a last attempt to be able to test more people, I asked if they had extra testing kits that they could share with the other testing partner. Unfortunately, their organization is unable to share them. I quickly changed the game plan to stop testing community members and give priority to tournament participants. After going through the Skillz games, many of them were eager to test. We were able to test a few teams, but ultimately had to turn people away. It completely crushed me to tell people they couldn’t be tested at the moment and must instead visit a local clinic for testing. It’s unusual for people to be so motivated to test and I hated that we were unable to capture the full potential of this precious opportunity.


As the event came to a close and we cleaned up the venue and thanked our coaches, I felt extremely demoralized. I felt as though I had let the GRS team and the Galeshewe community down. We probably tested between 50 and 75 people – a meager number compared to the previous year. But I was much more upset about having to tell people that they couldn’t test because we weren’t adequately prepared. It was hard to realize the obvious missteps I had taken – not telling our testing partners exactly how many testing kits we need, believing that since they had worked with us at the same event last year, that they would understand the scale of it.


Coach Vuyi about to receive his results after testing for the first time!

With time, I have come to recognize that I did not completely fail the people that were depending on me. I did disappoint, but there were still positives. For example, the kids enjoyed the tournament and the Skillz games and became excited and interested by the idea of testing for HIV. They made valuable connections with their Skillz coaches and I hope that their awareness and behavior related to HIV has changed for the better. Also, despite testing many fewer people than anticipated, we still tested over 50 people. Each one of those people took an important step that day to learn their status. They overcame fear and stigma in order to ensure healthier lives for themselves and others. We even had Skillz coaches test for the first time, thereby becoming beautiful examples for the children they taught. Lastly, I learned a lot about planning and interacting with partner organizations. Although I made mistakes, I think that I am stronger for it. A quote by Nelson Mandela that I have happened upon a few times during this internship sums up the situation:

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

I hope that I can heed Mandela’s wisdom and rise from this experience. We no longer have funding to have any more VCTs, but I’ve been talking to Lindsay and I think we can plan some small-scale VCTs where we play pickup soccer, have Skillz coaches teaching games, and offer testing to the community. The soccer would attract both kids and adults and the Skillz games would encourage people to test. It’s all just an idea right now, but I think we can do it.