Moving the Goal Post organized a workshop for their selected peer leaders from the 22nd – 26th August 2011. This workshop was in cooperation with the Kicking AIDS Out! Secretariat. The training was held in Kilifi in the coastal province of Kenya at the Moving The Goalposts offices, participants all being girls were drawn from the 25 fields MTG operates in. They were from the ages of 11 to 24 years old mostly coaches (two were staff members).

The workshop aimed at;

i)Giving knowledge of the Kicking Aids out network structure

ii)Awareness on HIV/AIDS and STIs

iii)Reproductive health

iv)Life skills and how to integrate it in sports

v)How to prepare work plans and to keep in touch in order to strengthen their work as Peer Leader

As facilitators we used interactive and participatory facilitation methods which helped participants in coming out strongly to share their knowledge on the different topics that were planned. At the start of the workshop, everyone was reserved but towards the end we were one happy family as ideas were exchanged freely. This was observed when at a point a participant felt that the things being discussed were new and strange and also a "no go zone". The area of Kilifi is known to be a reserved geographical area where culture does not allow people to talk about some issues for example around relationships and HIV and AIDS openly. After explaining to them the need for the information and the reality of the matter, they were able to talk freely giving their inputs on what they knew.

It was tricky for us as facilitators when it came to language. The coastal province of Kenya is known for their fluent Swahili unlike in Nairobi where sheng (a slang language) is used. It was a good experience to get a long well with the participants as they would make fun of our Swahili during dinner time where we were Swahili students yet we always believed we spoke Swahili. The participants gave us a few lessons during the dinners which we appreciated, something we took pride in when we go back to our organizations.

During Integration of sports and life skills, participants came up with innovative games that had both life skills and sports skills. It was fun during debriefing sessions as the participants opened up to give different views and also the lessons learnt derived from the games. At the end of the workshop the participants were presented with a Peer leader manual and a certificate of participation. We, as facilitators were not left out as MTG had a way of appreciating us with each of us getting an MTG t-shirt.

On the last day of the workshop we met with a number of the staff members to explain to them the Kicking AIDS concept and how the Network works and implements its activities. The staff members were taken through the Selection assessment guide, certification guides, identification of peer leaders, leader level 1’s guide and Monitoring and Evaluation tools.

We would like to appreciate the hospitality that was given to us by the MTG management and making our stay in Kilifi comfortable and to the Kicking AIDS Out Network Secretariat, for giving us this learning opportunity. This training strengthened our confidence and added to our abilities. They say “experience cannot be taught, but acquired.” We are in the process of acquiring ours with such opportunities.