When I was given a tour of the Botswana-Baylor Children’s Clinical Centre of Excellence, I learned that most of the HIV-positive youth in the country acquired HIV through mother-to-child transmission, and a smaller percentage through rape; it was a very small minority of children who contracted HIV through their own chosen behaviors. Yet despite the fact that they had no choice in the matter, they must deal with the consequences. I wanted to share two people’s stories about acquiring their HIV-positive status, the first through mother-to-child transmission and the second through an incident of rape.

I talked to a young man from Mochudi, 17 years old, who told me the following when I asked him about some of the challenges he’d experienced in his life: “When my mother gave birth to me she passed away while I was still young and I don’t even know her face, or my father’s. In 2006 I got a disease and while I tested at the hospital they told me that I was positive for HIV, but because I was still young I didn’t know anything. While I was growing, I realized how I could maintain my health despite the fact that I had HIV, but the thing is I have to take the treatment everyday as the doctor recommended… Now, I am doing so. It took me time, but I have accepted the situation.” He believes he became HIV positive from his mother and also indirectly from his grandmother, who were both HIV positive. When he found out about his positive status he said, “I was ashamed,” but “because there are teen clubs I became involved and it helped me to be open to myself and know that it is not me alone who is suffering from HIV and it is not my fault. Nowadays I am also confident because of Stepping Stones.” Teen club is a support group run by Baylor specifically for HIV-positive youth in Botswana, and Stepping Stones International is an after-school program for OVCs in Mochudi.

Another person from Mochudi, an 18-year-old female, informed me that she was HIV positive as the result of a rape. Expanding upon the story, she told me the following: “I remember clearly that it was around examination time, and on one Sunday I went out with my friends to a liquor bar. At around midnight I sneaked out of the bar with the intention of dodging my friends so that I could go back home because I was supposed to go to school on Monday. I went through a passage and I saw a person following and calling me by my name. I hurried through the passage but he suddenly grabbed me and took a knife out of his pocket. He dragged me and pressed me against a nearby rock and commanded me not to make any noise or else he would kill me. He ripped off my clothes and raped me. I was bleeding all over the body. As if that was not enough, he dragged me and laid me beside the tarred road and left me lying there unconscious… only to find myself in the hospital after regaining consciousness. I was told that I was found by the police on patrol and they brought me to the hospital.” The man was arrested.

This is her description of the aftermath: “[Now] I feel that everything is okay, especially that my mother is treating me well; from the time I was admitted to the hospital my family gave me a lot of support throughout the whole process.

Immediately after the HIV diagnosis I underwent extensive psychosocial counseling at an organization called ‘Bakgatla bolokang matshelo.’ I was told to accept my status and I eventually joined teen club… As a member of teen club, I began to accept my HIV status because I realized that I was not alone and there are other young people my age who have the same problem as mine. My family accepted me and gave me some love.”

These testimonies certainly also speak to the value of support programs for vulnerable youth – despite their very trying circumstances, such programs can make a tremendous difference.

Where are these people now? The first person mentioned above wants to be a policeman “to help society to control crime and also advise my age mates.” He “takes other kids for counseling, and advises them to take the treatment and protect themselves and not mix treatment with alcohol,” and says he doesn’t want his peers or his future children “to suffer like I did.” As for the second, she enthusiastically intends to be a doctor (a general practitioner) working in Botswana and also says, “I personally think I can help change the mindset of young people towards HIV/AIDS through sharing my story and experience. I will also teach them about HIV prevention measures and not forgetting to encourage them to never give up too easily in life no matter the circumstances.” By channeling their hardship in a way that allows them to ameliorate the lives of others as well as provide experience for a more successful future, these young people are extraordinary examples for other youth who are also undergoing substantial adversity.

 After fun and energetic warm ups, the teens were split into three groups: younger (13-16 years old), older (17-19 years old), and young adults (19+). All groups began the day listening to presentations by the Barclays Bank volunteers. The representatives talked about different ways of keeping track of one’s expenses, saving money and spending it wisely. The talks were engaging and informative and laid the groundwork for the day’s activities. At the conclusion of the presentations and question-and-answer time, the teens were further subdivided in their groups to begin the day’s activities!

 The younger teens had the task of planning a major event on a budget. They were split into six groups, half planning a school award giving ceremony and half planning a talent show. Each group was given a budget and presented with options for various elements of each event (ex. venues, food, entertainment etc…). Their job was to work together as a team to come up with a fun event that was within their budget. The teens did a wonderful job working together and communicating with each other about how to stay within their financial constraints. At the end of the exercise, each group presented their plan for the event, enabling the teens to practice both their public speaking and their financial literacy skills!

 The older teens and the young adults were split into groups of six to play the board game South African Monopoly. Shouts and laughter filled Baylor’s lobby as the older teens paid and gained money, bought and sold properties, went bankrupt, built hotels and hit the jackpot! As Monopoly emphasizes buying and maintaining property, a very important part of one’s adult life, the older teens were learning to implement the budgeting techniques that the Barclay’s representatives had discussed all the while. Once the games started, passersby could only see were the backs of the teens’ heads as everyone huddled over the game boards, completely engrossed.

 The day’s events turned out to be a wonderful success! Teens were able to apply what they had learned from the Barclay’s representatives with the activities and games that followed. All activities were enjoyed by younger and older teens alike, and everyone—even the Teen Club staff—came away from the day a little bit wiser!

 A huge thanks to Barclays Bank of Botswana for making this Financial Literacy Teen Club possible not only in Gaborone, but at all of our satellite Teen Clubs around Botswana, too!!

 The main activity of the day was making spacers for inhalers. Inhalers are devices used by people with asthma to direct medication into their lungs that helps them to breathe. Spacers are cylindrical devices that create a tunnel of space between someone’s inhaler and mouth; this makes it much easier to correctly inhale the medicine into the lungs, rather than swallowing it into their stomachs where it will not help. As helpful as spacers are, they are also quite expensive. Luckily, doctors at the Botswana-Baylor Clinic knew that you can make them easily, effectively and inexpensively out of small plastic water bottles!

 Thanks to the generous donations of empty used water bottles from hotels and schools around Gaborone, we were able to collect 373 bottles to turn into spacers. Teen Club staff cut holes in the bottom of the bottles (where the mouth of the inhaler will be inserted) before Teen Club. Teens started by removing the labels from the bottles, then they washed and rinsed every bottle and laid them out to dry in the sun. While the bottles dried, teens decorated new labels for the spacers, drawing colorful pictures and writing encouraging messages to the spacers’ future recipients such as “feel better soon” and “you are great.” Finally, teens glued the new labels onto the spacers and taped over the hole cut in the bottom to make smooth edges and a snug fit for the mouth of the inhalers.

 In the morning, the younger teens (13-15 years old) made birthday and holiday cards for doctors at the neighboring public hospital to give to young patients staying in the hospital over holidays or their birthdays. While this was happening, older teens started making inhaler spacers out of recycled water bottles. Making the spacers was more time consuming than expected, so in the second half of the morning, the younger teens joined the effort! In the end, the teens were able to complete the production and decoration of all 373 spacers!

 Teens reported feeling very happy about the day. One stated, “I feel so good about giving back to my community that I wrote my name on the water bottle. I want the person to know that it is from me to them!”

All in all, community service Teen Club was a big hit. We cannot wait to begin giving out the spacers and holiday and birthday cards to children! Thank you to all of the organizations who donated water bottles, to the doctors whose idea sparked this project, and to the teens for making it possible!

Following the presentation, the teens were broken into two groups (younger and older teens) for the rest of the day’s activities. The first activity of the day involved the teens discussing their opinions on roles within relationships. Volunteers read out statements (ex. “Because your boyfriend wants to have sex with you, you know that he really loves you.”) and the teens were asked to stand next to signs saying Yes, No or Maybe, depending on how they felt about each statement. After the teens had made their decisions, the volunteers asked and encouraged them, to discuss why they were standing where they were. All of the teens (both the younger and older groups) participated very enthusiastically in the discussions following each statement. The activity proved to be an effective and fun way to engage teens in a healthy discussion about stereotypes that exist within various relationships and why those stereotypes may or may not be true. The teens enjoyed this activity so much that we ran over time!

 The next activity involved role playing. The younger and older teens were given different scenarios/situations that may be typical within predominant relationships in their lives. They broke up into smaller groups and the volunteers asked the teens to role play both the scenario as well as what the teens thought would be the most appropriate solution to the problem. The situations involved not only romantic relationships, but also familial relationships as well as relationships with friends and peers. The skits that the teens came up with were very creative and showed excellent problem solving skills. Many of the teens reported how much they enjoyed role-playing.

Overall, the day was a resounding success. The teens were able to approach the, sometimes difficult, topic of relationships in creative ways. The various activities generated a great deal of discussion among the teens and both the younger and older teens reported enjoying the day’s activities!

Other teens took part in creating a World AIDS Day banner that will be displayed at the COE every year on December 1^st. This year’s World AIDS Day theme is “Getting to Zero” (for more information visit: WorldAIDSCampaign), though the banner did not focus on this specific theme as we want to be able to display the banner for many years to come. This year’s theme, however, is very special as this year marks the 30^th anniversary of the first recorded case of AIDS back in 1981. The banner was a way to allow the teens to reflect on World AIDS Day and the importance of raising awareness.

 Finally, some teens learned how to crochet on potato sacks. This type of artwork can be found all over Botswana and is a very creative way to use material that would have otherwise been thrown away. The resulting designs were colorful, fun and environmentally sustainable.

 Toward the end of the day, the Teen Club Coordinator took some of the older teens aside to discuss relationship, abuse and gender issues that they were encouraged to keep in mind as they left for the Christmas holidays.

 Overall, Teen Club Arts and Crafts day was a wonderful success! The teens were able to take part in activities that many of them had not experienced before and became directly involved in raising money for their future Adolescent Centre. We also discovered some natural artists during the day’s activities! The teens seemed to really enjoy themselves, chatting away with each other throughout the morning. They also learned to work together and communicate to share paintbrushes and paint and in coming up with a cohesive theme for the World AIDS Day banner.

On behalf of our teens, we would like to send a big thank you to Michael Chmiel and the Jack Meier Gallery for the tremendous support!

Teens learning about life as a photographer!

It is not so often that adolescents have the opportunity to get a taste of different careers. School or family pushes in certain directions, and life can often feel pre-determined by these outside forces. The goal of our Teen Club Career Day was to give the teens a chance to experiment, ask questions, listen and learn for themselves what life is like as a pilot, an engineer, a doctor, a chef, and to understand what it takes to be a professional in each of those careers. We wanted them to leave inspired, to be motivated to reach for the stars (or at least the skies, in the case of the pilot), to study hard in school and work hard in life with the knowledge that all of these professions and many more are just at their fingertips.

Feedback on Teen Club Career Day was overwhelmingly positive. Walking between stations upstairs, one girl was overheard saying “how wonderful to be a Social Worker!” as another Teen Club participant down the hall remarked, “I always thought I wanted to be a pilot, and now I am sure!” One of the teens was particularly pleased with the photographer’s station; she was excited to show everyone that the artistic career she dreams of is as legitimate an endeavor as finance or marketing. Overall, the day went without a flaw. Everyone who attended left feeling inspired by each other: the teens and volunteers from the professionals, the professionals from the teens and volunteers. At the end of the day, we can only hope that everyone went home a little more determined to put in that extra effort at work or at school, and, perhaps, a little more excited about tomorrow.

Please visit us at our new home: http://www.botswanateenclub.org

The day began differently than most Teen Clubs do; instead of separating into age groups the Teens were given options and encouraged to choose the activity in which they wanted to participate.  Some of the Teens set to work on creating dramas about responsibility. Theses skits were entertaining and thought-provoking. Teens acted out football games and social situations all of which ended in someone having to take responsibility and face a consequence.  After each performance the group discussed who needed to admit to wrongdoing and how that character could best handle himself in the future.

As the aspiring thespians illustrated the day’s theme through skits, some of their peers took to the pitch to explore how sports can transcend cultures and teach participants a multitude of life skills.

Although football is arguably the most popular sport among the Teen Club members, Teens were excited to learn a new sport: Ultimate. Ultimate is a game played with a Frisbee-style disc and can be described as a combination of American football, football (American soccer) and netball.  In addition to having a blast learning to throw and catch the discs, Teens learned about the “Spirit of the Game.” Ultimate is played without any officials calling fouls; as a matter of fact, all fouls must be called by the player committing the wrong (this is in stark contrast with the contentious griping of footballers arguing almost every call made by officials). It is this aspect of the game that makes Ultimate the ideal sport to teach personal accountability. It was incredibly fortunate that University of Illinois Ultimate team, Prion, was willing to sponsor the day, donating discs to some of the Teens so that they may continue practicing. A special thank you must be offered to Prion and Pavan Sarguru for organizing the fundraising tournament and bringing Ultimate to the Teens of Botswana.

Personally, this was a special Teen Club for this author.  After working with the Botswana Teen Club for a year, September’s Teen Club was my last (for now…). Every aspect of my time with Botswana Teen Club, from the people I worked with daily to the time I had interacting with the Teens, was life changing.  As cliché as it sounds, it’s true when I say words cannot describe how impressed I am by Teen Club members and especially the Teen Leaders, both current and past. I wish everyone the best of luck in their continued pursuit of excellence with Botswana Teen Club. I will miss you all dearly. Even you, Silk.”

Peter Butzen