PULSE and Field Band Education (FBE) is currently planning three weeks of workshops in Free State. It is going to be one workshop week in each band. One in Parys, one in Vilioenskroon and one in Kroonstad. These workshops are called “Super Heroes” which will result in a final event called “Amazing Race”. This is a day filled with a lot of games and fun for the members where the focus is disability awareness. “Super Heros” and “Amazing Race” are funded by Ponahalo. You will read more about this in a later blog post.
Friday this week, PULSE went to Viljoenskroon in Free State where they executed a one-day training and information session with staff from all three Free State bands. This was to give them an extra update about “Super Heroes” and “Amazing raze”, and what preparations that are needed from them. To promote the topics and raise awareness in their communities, stakeholder engagement has been emphasized as an important part of the preparations. The Free States bands are all “inclusive bands”, which means that they have extra focus on including people living with disabilities.
PULSE and FBE have developed a “Knowledge and Skills Assessment” that the staff members should take before PULSE and FBE arrange “Super Heroes” and Educational Band visits round 2. The results from this assessment are being used to evaluate their level of knowledge, so that it will be easier to plan the content of the upcoming workshops and also which of the topics that should be emphasized. In addition to this, PULSE got to try out some of the HIV and Aids activities: due to funding received from PEPFAR (read more about this here: Raising awareness about HIV and Aids). PULSE has developed a series of activities, where the aim is to increase knowledge and awareness about HIV and Aids. PULSE needed to see if the activities were comprehensible and if the staff was able to facilitate them. The plan is to implement the activities for the staff and members in all bands in the Field Band Foundation this year.
Free State teams trying out HIV activities
Written by: Hanna Bakke Negård
Pictures by: Sofie Hjertvik and Hanna Bakke Negård
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