Each of the nine centers across Kenya hosts soccer programs that attract talented young athletes. Practices and team meetings give our peer educators a chance to meet with teams in small groups sessions to talk about safe sex, distribute condoms, and discuss HIV and AIDS with players on an individual level. The eventual tournaments provide a venue for communication of these messages to the masses of people that come to watch (up to 4,000 enthusiastic spectators attend an urban game).
An important facet of the program is the training and support of 135 peer educators who pass on knowledge to youth, and provide condoms to those who need them. In fact, many of the peer educators have become walking “condom dispensers” and sometimes receive a knock on their doors in the dead of night from friends seeking condom support! In addition, the peer educators visit primary schools and secondary to schools to deliver age-specific messages to children in an entertaining way.
The focus of the Center is to serve the impoverished rural villages of Barlovento through education, health, agriculture and cooperatives. Due to a legacy of slavery, poverty and unemployment, most of the Afro-Venezuelan villagers suffer from low self esteem and lack of opportunities to develop their potential.