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Tapfuma Machakaire
“Every time I got angry I would hurt myself and derive comfort from seeing blood oozing from my wounds. I could not disclose my status to anyone as I was afraid of being discriminated against and I had also lost weight. My cousin worsened the situation by abusing me and I never thought I would ever forgive her,” writes 23-year-old Kgomotso Keitumelo (not his real name) of Bulawayo.
This is one of many chilling stories from youngsters born HIV positive whose lives have been transformed after undergoing psychosocial therapy that includes experiential learning at the Mpilo Central Hospital Opportunistic Infections Unit.
In a booklet recently published by the Million Memory Project Zimbabwe Trust (MMPZT) Kgomotso says he attempted suicide three times after he learnt that he was HIV positive.
Kgomotso, who stays with his uncle in the city, says he was told that his mother died when he was a year old and he has never known his father. After the death of his mother, his grandmother took care of him but she also passed on in the year 2000.
Following his grandmother’s death, Kgomotso was taken in by his aunt who died two years later.
His brother who supported him through his primary education also passed on in 2008.
Kgomotso says because of the string of depressing experiences in his life in addition to being born HIV positive, he had lost hope of ever doing anything productive in life.
This was until he became exposed to MMPZT in 2012 where he is being taught life skills and how to cope with his depressing situation.
Established in 2005, MMPZT brings together families, communities and institutions in addressing the challenges of children and youths living with HIV most of whom are abused, discriminated and stigmatised at schools and in the communities.
MMPZT put up a makeshift mini challenge course in the backyard of the Mpilo Central Hospital Opportunistic Infections Unit as part of psychosocial support activities for children and youths living with HIV.
The challenge course however is far from meeting the average standards of an effective experiential learning facility due to lack of space and an appropriate environment.
An ideal experiential learning challenge adventure course such as the famous Masiye Camp in the Matobo hills is set in a quiet, rocky and bushy environment that provides for the requisite natural obstacles for challenging games for adventure learning and team building exercises.
MMPZT recently secured a 1.5 hectare plot which it is leasing from the Bulawayo City Council in Nkulumane suburb where the organisation has started developing an experiential learning challenge course.
“The idea of the project followed a programme reflection review and strategic planning process where a key recommendation was that the organisation needed to urgently focus on the development of new and exciting youth oriented programmes that would retain and attract more youths to participate,” said MMPZT director Mr Trevor Chirimambowa
He said the land which for years has been lying idle, is ideal for the project as it encompasses a kopje in the centre of Nkulumane, a high density suburb that has been cited as an HIV hot spot in Bulawayo.
“We have so far managed to fence off the area and our plan is to develop a challenge course that will comprise of both high and low ropes course elements and a wide array of initiative activities designed for use not only by the demographic MMPZ work, but also children and youths of different age groups in the Bulawayo Metropolitan province with the catchment envisaged to grow beyond Bulawayo.
“The challenge course should provide an exciting and effective platform for experiential learning that is mainstreamed into sexual reproductive health and HIV education and is expected to reach out to at least 8 000 youths in its first year of operation,” said Mr Chirimambowa. The centre would also include voluntary HIV testing and counselling facilities for youths who would be referred to health facilities should they test positive.
“We are also thinking of introducing skills training programmes that are attractive to young people such as rearing of rabbits, fish farming and growing of mushrooms. As part of employment creation, youths who are already on the MMPZT project would be trained to conduct the team building exercises.
“With a state-of-the-art challenge course that is fully equipped with trained staff, we will be in a strong position to hire out the challenge course to paying clients as a social enterprise undertaking. Schools, civil society organisations, companies and government departments that desire the opportunity to provide team building and individual growth opportunities for their staff, could be targeted with purpose designed packages,” said Mr Chirimambowa.
He said research has shown that challenge courses are an effective tool for imparting educational and psychological constructs such as self-esteem and self-efficacy to participants, particularly in therapeutic settings.
Mr Chirimambowa argues that there is no programme in Zimbabwe that has deliberately taken up the idea of using experiential learning to reach out to youths on issues of HIV and sexual reproductive health and the Nkulumane project could be the first.
However, in order to complete the project, the organisation is appealing to well-wishers for a total of $20 000 mainly to buy equipment.
Donations could also be made in the form of empty shipment containers that can be used to mount some of the challenge courses.
“It is my hope that in the next six months, we will have completed the Nkulumane project that will assist us to provide essential life and interpersonal skills to children and youths through child and youth activities.” said Mr Chirimambowa.
Online Reporter