Deportes Para la Vida

My last big hurrah before heading home for the holidays was a 5-day camp/training to learn all about Deportes Para la Vida (Sports for Life). Deportes Para la Vida (DPV) is a Dominican offspring of Grassroot Soccer, an American NGO that “uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV.” Grassroot Soccer uses soccer and athletics to educate about HIV/AIDS in the developing world, primarily in Africa.

Deportes Para la Vida works towards the same goal in the DR. As soccer takes a backseat to baseball and is not embraced by Dominicans as in most all other countries, DPV is working to educate using a number of different sports including baseball, basketball and volleyball.

The training was the longest I have participated in as a volunteer. Each of the 8 or so volunteers brought 2-3 youth leaders from our communities to receive the training along with us. The goal was to train the DPV curriculum to Volunteers and our youth so that we can return to our communities and multiply the information to our youth.

DPV consists of many fun and educational activities and will be a really fun course to do with Dominican youth. Along with the two youth from my site who attended the training with me, we plan on teaching the course during P.E. each week in our local school and drop some HIV knowledge while having some fun.

Chicas Brillantes

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to attend an intercambio with 24 young Dominican chicas aged 11-18. I was the only male at the event along with the 24 girls and 4 female volunteers.

The intercambio was for Chicas Brillantes, a Peace Corps initiative for young Dominican girls. The overnight intercambio featured sessions about the female body, art activities, volleyball games and much more.

Chicas Brillantes is a girls club that many volunteers do that covers topics about adolescence and young womanhood and includes many interesting activities and opportunities for young Dominican girls. The girls clubs work year round in anticipation of their seminal event, Camp G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World), which takes place each summer.

Verdict is still out as to whether I will be starting my very own girls group in the months to come. The intercambio reinforced the importance of working with girls in this machismo culture but also how many headaches may come with working with girls aged 11-14. Vamos a ver.