Peer Educator Training Course

Last Friday I heaved a long sigh of relief as a training course that I’d organised for the peer educators came to an end. Looking back it was pretty successful but first I’ll have a little rant…

We kicked off on Tuesday morning behind schedule as expected but by 10am fifty peer educators were crammed into a hall no bigger than the average British classroom. My first task was to explain that there wouldn’t be any ‘sitting allowances’, lunch or handouts provided. Kwacha Kum’mawa had asked if I would arrange a refresher course a couple of weeks ago and asked if it could start within the following two weeks. I made it clear from the beginning that there’s no money whatsoever for such an event therefore we’d do it over five mornings so that the participants could go home for lunch. I repeated a number of times that there would be no handouts, no t-shirts or caps and they would have to provide their own pens and paper. Through gritted teeth they agreed that they wanted the training anyway.

So, you can imagine my disappointment when, on the first morning, I ask the participants to write down their expectations of the course and at least 75% of them write ‘t-shirts’ ‘sitting allowance’ ‘lunch’ or something to that effect.

It seems that lots of money is spent on workshops in Zambia. In fact, more time and energy is spent going to training courses than actually putting into practice whatever it is that is learnt. And the norm seems to be to provide all the above and more. I told the peer educators that if they had come along to the course to get lunch or money then they were in the wrong place and should leave …unsurprisingly no one moved a muscle.

Day one got off to a good start but descended into a fairly heated debate when I asked them whether they agreed or disagreed with a few controversial statements such as ‘you should not have sex before marriage’ and ‘HIV positive people should not be allowed to use public swimming baths’. My heart sank when a majority of the participants agreed with the statement ‘women who carry condoms are cheap and easy’. It sank further when I asked if they agreed that ‘men who carried condoms are cheap and easy’ and most shifted to the other corner of the room to signify their disagreement. Holding back my disapproval, I asked them to justify their opinions, to which they began their answers, ‘well, you have to understand here in Zambia…’ followed by statements such as ‘men make the decisions’ and ‘contraception is a man’s responsibility’.

It didn’t take long to realise that my assumption that peer educators would automatically challenge such beliefs was completely naïve and that if I voiced my disagreement it would be met with cries of ‘but things are different in Britain.’ So after the first day I went home feeling pretty disillusioned; many of the so-called peer educators were not the shining role models I’d assumed.

At this point I should add that many of them are brilliant, intelligent, enthusiastic and motivated young people who believe truly in challenging gender stereotypes, shout loudly about the benefits of condom use and work their socks off for little or no reward. And I think after four days of thrashing out their ideas with each other more and more can be included in this category.

The Programme Manager from Tikondane, who’s a nurse by profession, facilitated most of day two on the subject of STIs. And if the pictures of horrendous STI symptoms don’t put the peers off of having unprotected sex nothing will!

I’d dedicated much of day three to what is slowly becoming my favourite topic of conversation – condoms. During feedback on what are the advantages, disadvantages and myths about using both a male or female condom I took the chance to challenge their beliefs about those who carry condoms. I asked if we could add ‘all women who carry condoms are cheap and easy’ to the myths list, to which there were no objections. Now, I’m utterly baffled, have they all changed their minds in under 48hours and the training course is having a real impact? Or perhaps I’d scared them into submission or maybe they were all playing devil’s advocate on day one? Either way, I got my statement up on the myths board and told them that I thought women who carry condoms are intelligent, sensible and strong individuals. That’s got to be a good start. I’ve just finished reading all the evaluation forms and ‘knowing how to use a condom’ came top of the things that they had learnt during the workshop…result!

On the final day I handed the floor over to the coordinators from Kwacha and Tikondane who got all the boys drawing the female reproductive organs and the girls doing the opposite. Thank God I was allowed to sit out of this one; the boys could name parts of my own body that I never knew existed – utter shame!

And just in case any of you need a brilliant energiser to kick start a boring office meeting try this with your colleagues.
- Ask everyone to think of a company motto such as ‘Sainsbury’s….making life taste better’ or ‘Nike…just do it!’
- Now ask someone stand in the centre of the group and replace the company name with ‘under my pants…’
- The sentences should go something like this ‘under my pants…making life taste better’ or ‘Bostik…the wonder product with 101 uses’.

It’s a great way to break down barriers!

Giant swimming pools, sunburn and synchronised sickness!

Last weekend we finally left Chipata and tagged along with some other volunteers who were driving over to Lake Malawi. We pitched a tent literally three metres from the beach and next door to the cocktail bar (think Tom Cruise in ‘Cocktail’). We couldn’t believe our luck – all for £2 a night.

We were awake by 6:30 the first morning and jumped straight into what felt like the biggest swimming pool on earth, the Lake was completely calm, clear and warm even at that time in the morning.

The rest of the weekend went pretty much as you’d expect, more swimming, lots of reading and frisbee and I stupidly managed to turn a lovely shade of pink. We did manage to horrify our companions at the all-you-can-eat breakfast on the last morning. We just couldn’t resist trying the fresh fruit, muesli, omelette (made while you wait), scotch pancakes, Danish pastries…needless to say we didn’t need lunch!

Back in Chipata, it felt like we’d been away for weeks but the feeling quickly subsided when we both ended up at the doctor mid-week. There was no receptionist at the doctor’s surgery, we just took up our place in the queue and waited for our turn. No one called when it was our turn, instead every few minutes or so the ladies at the front of the queue would peak into the ‘Consultant’s Room’ to see if the doctor was finished with the previous patient. Our turn came and we met Dr. Mutali complete with a smoking rolly between his lips, brilliant! He was pretty good despite first impressions and sent us almost immediately into the next room for a blood slide to test for Malaria. Thankfully, despite all the hungry mosquitoes, we’re both still Malaria free but I think we’ll be taking care to wash our hands more carefully before dinner from now on.

On top of being ill my week’s been pretty tough. I’ve been trying to organise a training course for the peer educators from all three organisations. This has proved to be a bit of a challenge – writing 20 hours of participatory workshops (in a participatory way), finding a venue for fifty people, scraping about for spare flipcharts, pens etc. all with a budget of zero and the course was due to start on Monday (its starting on Tuesday!). I’ll let you know how it goes….

However, to end on a positive note, Friday afternoon we got a game of frisbee going with some of the peer educators. Hopefully it’s going to become a weekly fixture – there’s absolutely nothing for young people to do in Chipata. Reminiscent of the trip to Navatika a few weeks back there were more under 10s spectating than there were people playing. It seems to be the case here – that what ever you try and do there will always be a gaggle of children gathering to stare.

My Postal Address

Lots of you have been asking for an address to send things to. I can't really receive post at home in Chipata so if you send things to the VSO office in Lusaka I can pick things up/get them forwarded from there.

Here's the address:

Voluntary Services Overseas
British Council building
4th Floor, Heroes Place,
Cairo Road
Lusaka
PO BOX 32965

Condoms at last!

I was a little apprehensive about starting work with the third organisation I’m supposed to be attached to. There seems to be so much to keep me busy with each of the other two on their own but I was really excited when I turned up to Kwacha Kum’mawa and noticed boxes of condoms strewn across the office. Finally, a youth education project with a realistic grip on the situation.

I was even more excited when I accompanied a group of peer educators to Navatika (literally meaning ‘poverty’), a high density compound just north of town and they brought a wooden penis along for the show. Not a moment too soon I got to witness a much-needed condom demonstration. My only concern was that the guy doing the demo was wearing latex gloves…I’m not sure we got taught that one in sex ed lessons back in the UK? I asked around to find out why he was wearing them and someone mentioned he didn’t want to get the lubricant over his hands, another said people should wear gloves in case of sores on their hands which may make them vulnerable to HIV transmission. I’m yet to find out which it was but I find it hard to believe that young people are having sex whilst wearing gloves!

Still, it was obvious from the amount of children that had turned up to see the educational video we were showing in the middle of the market place that birth control, let alone HIV prevention, is in short supply.

Actually I couldn’t believe the number of children there must have been five or ten for every adult. I’m not sure why I was so surprised, apparently 50% of the population in Chipata are under 20. Unfortunately though, it did mean that the majority of the audience for our hard-hitting video about a family living with HIV, were under five years old. Apparently mothers can’t watch any remotely suggestive videos when their children are present. And in a place where many women are mothers by the time they are twenty, our messages didn’t quite make it to the intended target group. Having said that the peer educators did manage to distribute about 200 condoms and if only ten percent of them get used the trip was worth it.