Basseterre, St. Kitts (May 09, 2007)
Approximately thirty young persons learnt valuable life skills such as leadership and healthy lifestyles at a workshop which concluded on Wednesday.
Sessions for the three-day Caribbean Healthy Lifestyle Project (C-HLP) were held at the Warner Park conference room, under the theme “Encouraging Positive Lifestyle Changes in the Youth: Your Life, Your Health: Make it Right.”
“We zeroed in on areas like self esteem, decision making, goal setting and teamwork,” Regional C-HLP Coordinator Kathy Harper-Hall explained, noting that peer to peer education is the main goal of the programme.
As such topics such as presentation techniques, learning styles, self management as well as recruiting and maintaining volunteers were highlighted during the workshop.One important part of the programme is a sexual responsibility module. The C-HLP has teamed up with the Kicking AIDS Out! (KAO) initiative to address this area. Kicking AIDS Out! promotes the use of sport as a tool for development. Sports & physical activities are used to build awareness about HIV/AIDS through educational games and activities which encourage peers to discuss issues that affect their lives and their communities.
Marlon Thompson, Wayne Benti, Sarah Cluer and Kimberly Edwards are in the Federation to facilitate the Kicking AIDS Out (KAO) sessions. Ms. Edwards revealed that a segment dubbed “˜the sports circuit’ uses of sports to get the message across to participants.
“We use parts of various sports like cricket, football and hockey to teach children about the basic lessons of HIV/AIDS,” she stated. “We have used it in various schools in Trinidad and Tobago and we are now using it in St. Kitts. It really highlights the KAO programme and it draws interest into the programme and allows us to train others to facilitate the circuit as well.”
Over 120 high school students participated in the sports circuit segment held yesterday at Netball City. The interactive sessions saw students gaining and sharing advice about sports and HIV/AIDS.
Activities from the workshop were documented to present at the inaugural Caribbean Conference of the International Council for Health, Physical Education Recreation, Sport and Dance (ICHPER∙SD). The May 11 and 12 event convenes at the Royal St. Kitts Hotel and Casino.
A follow up workshop will be held on May 14 to 16 to further explore the implementation of the KAO programme in St. Kitts and Nevis.