With snow, dancing, HIV/AIDS awareness-raising and much much more, the dance4life team started 2012 on a high with a fun-filled Peer Education training weekend.
“What a fantastic training, it was great to work with so many enthusiastic young people!” Iona, 23, dance4life Youth Engagement Intern
Last weekend, the dance4life team and 10 enthusiastic young people braved the chilly London snow to attend our second Peer Education training weekend. With young people coming from as far as Glasgow (on an overnight mega bus no less) Bedford, Brighton, Hull, London and Liverpool, we all met at the very aptly named ‘Surprise Backpackers’ on Friday night ready and rearing for training to begin. The biggest surprise of the backpackers was their gravity-defying bunkbeds stacked three people high, making for high-altitude-style night’s sleep for some…
On Saturday we headed the Restless Development offices to kick off our first day of training. After filling up on morning cookies and haribo, we began by learning some new warmers from the group – our favourite being the Vaselina game, which Frank had brought all the way back from Zambia. We then got down to business chatting about peer education, HIV/AIDS and other STIs (of course sparing a few moments for a bit of dancing in between), before breaking up into groups to workshop the sex-ed skills4life sessions our lovely Youth Board created. After only a short time to prepare, our amazing peer educators wowed us all, delivering practice sessions on HIV/AIDS and stigma and discrimination. We finished the day by eating burgers the size of Rach’s face (almost true), an epic snow ball fight in Trafalgar Square, and even a few brave snow angels from Rach and Iona.
After another high-altitude night at the backpackers, the team trekked through the freshly-laid snow back to the offices ready for our final day. Over a few warm cups of tea, we chatted about the ways in which HIV affects the body, how anti-retroviral treatment works (the drugs that keep HIV+ people healthy), and the problems that people face worldwide when trying to access the treatment, care and support they need. Our peer educators then confidently led us through sessions on pregnancy, sexuality and relationships, keeping their cool despite our best efforts to play rowdy peers. We then chatted about taking action and the other opportunities available for young people at Restless Development such as the ‘Live Below the Line Campaign’, the ‘Creative Media Group’ and the ‘Student Stop AIDS Campaign’, before finishing the weekend on a high with, none other than, a dance-off – a big shout out in particular to peer educator Anne for her amazing battle moves!
A MASSIVE thank you to all our peer educators for all their hard work and enthusiasm, making last weekend such a great success! We can’t wait to see you all in action.
If you would like to become a peer educator, have dance4life come to your school or find out more about other opportunities with dance4life and Restless Development email Chelle: chelle@restlessdevelopment.org or checkout www.facebook.com/dance4lifeuk to find out more.
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