Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation (PNGSF) and Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) in Fiji became members of the Kicking AIDS out Network in 2008. Two courses were scheduled for this region which was coordinated by PNGSF. The first course to be held was the Leader Level 1 Course. The trained leaders were then tasked with support by the Leader Level 2’s who were sent to conduct these courses facilitated a Peer Leaders course in Fiji as a post workshop activity.
In the PL course the Participants came from four countries, 9 from PNG, 2 from Vanuatu, 1 from Kiribati and 3 from Fiji in total 23 participants.
Through an application process amongst Kicking AIDS Out Leaders, two facilitators were selected to conduct the training, Justin Mukumbo (Sport in Action, Zambia) and Jacquelean Wanyonyi (MYSA, Kenya).The courses were successful and action plans were drawn by the participants for the implementation of Kicking AIDS Out. Participants and trainers reaffirmed that the participatory, ‘Sports first’ approach to learning life skills and bringing about behaviour change is very powerful in the Pacific context.
The three day LL1 workshop allowed time for participants to discuss and make suggestions about how Kicking AIDS Out can be integrated into existing programs, structures and organizations. Justin highlighted the importance of channelling reporting and to communicate through PNGSF so that development and implementation of Kicking AIDS out can be passed on to the Kicking AIDS Out network.
Jacquelean used storytelling to summaries what participants went through during the course and yet to do after the workshop:
“We should start by ourselves to behavioural change and never point fingers on others because change starts by oneself.”
