John Paul II YESS Club

On Saturday, May 29, after teaching our last lesson to our John Paul II secondary classes, we held the first YESS club meeting. I guess I should begin by explaining what exactly is a YESS club. YESS, the youth empowerment strategic scheme, is the name of our partner organization. Together, QHO and YESS have decided that starting a club at each school we train will be a way to make our project and objectives more sustainable. We have many ideas for this type of club, but ultimately, the club will be whatever the students make it to be. This particular Saturday afternoon we met with a group of students from all forms (grades 9-12 in Canadian terms), who expressed interest in participating in such a club at their school. We discussed options of possible goals and activities for the club. The first club activity will be aiding our project in facilitating an outreach day at their school. The students identified a venue nearby where they would like the events of this day to be help. They brainstormed for possible outreach activities and decided on a mobile VCT (volunteer counseling and testing – the service that provides HIV testing and counseling). The students decided they would like to create drama presentations about the topics we taught them throughout the week (Life Skills, Gender Roles and Relationship Boundaries, HIV/AIDS and Responsible Sexuality) so they can educate their community about these topics during the testing day. This is a very exciting opportunity for the students of John Paul II Secondary School to act as peer educators in their community, and have the option to choose to get tested for HIV, along with members of their community.

As a project, we are looking to partner a VCT counselor with each YESS club so that the club can form a support group for HIV pre and post testing. We would like to also provide each club with the guarantee of a resource person within the YESS organization, who can support the club throughout the year, through answering any questions the students pose, linking the club with contacts to fund their outreach events and to visit the clubs throughout the year to maintain contact. Before the end of project, we hope to deliver 2 handbooks to each club that contains the material in our curriculum, ideas for outreach activities, structure for leadership and possible topics for the club meetings. This first meeting was a success, and although there is much work to still be done in facilitating these clubs, we are off to a great start.