One week until Departure

As many of you know, beginning in less than a week, I will be spending the next year of my life in South Africa working for Grassroot Soccer, an organization that uses soccer as a means to promote awareness and education about HIV/AIDS.

In my first year out of college, I have been fortunate enough to find a program that combines some of my greatest passions – soccer, service, and travelling – in an engaging, effective, and dynamic environment.

To put it simply, GRS is kind of like a soccer-based version of the Peace Corps. I have been placed in Soweto – GRS’s newest site – along with one of my best friends, A.J. Grant, and our housemate Tizzy Ernstoff. Soweto is the most populous black urban residential area in the country, and is based southwest (hence where the name, came from South West Township) of Johannesburg. In Soweto, I will be serving as a program intern, with a multi-dimensional role that includes working with local community leaders to continually improve the curriculum, HIV/AIDS research, program monitoring and evaluation, business development, youth-targeted HIV/AID education programs, and more.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the reasons GRS is so appealing is because it is truly a grassroots organization. Rather than coming to Africa in a kind of “imperialist” way, trying to impose their own practices and ideas upon the African people, GRS staff act as facilitators. They create a dialogue with the leaders of each specific community they work in, so as to make sure the GRS program effectively addresses the specific needs of that community. This makes the program more effective, as well as more culturally responsible. During the time I spent in Senegal during my junior year abroad, I saw many non-profits that had a kind of ‘umbrella’ mentality with regards to their programming – which I quickly realized doesn’t work and does a disservice to the people these organizations claim to be serving. That is why I’m so excited to be working for an organization that makes a concerted effort to engage and empower local community leaders so that the program is not something that is forced upon them, rather one that they take control of themselves. Here is what I'm talking about:

On Wednesday, I will be heading to Hanover, New Hampshire for a 4-day orientation with the other interns, and then heading off to Johannesburg on Sunday, August 8^th. Words can’t express how excited I am to get started. I’ve known that I was going to be doing this for nearly 5 months now, and the fact that it’s now only a week away has my stomach doing backflips. 

In the meantime, I have a room full of empty suitcases and a floor covered in dirty laundry...


Also, thank you soooo much to everyone who has contributed to my fundraising efforts, it is deeply appreciated. If you are still interested in donating, you can make a tax-deductible online donation at the top right hand side of the page. Thanks again.