Teachers and Group Leaders                                                                                                                                                                                              

You can play the signature game in your class room.  Below are the instructions on how to play.  Help us spread our message.

Instructions                                                                                                                                                                                 Give everyone a piece of paper and ask them to write down a list of numbers starting with 1 and ending with the number you, the facilitator, give them.  The number is the total number of all the participants.  Explain to everyone that when you give them the signal they should collect as many signatures as possible.  The winner will be the one with the most signatures on their paper.  Ask them to number their paper with their own number at the top and to put their own signature against the the appropriate number on their list before they begin.  Then give each person a number.

Arrange with two participants before the game begins to be your helpers in the signature game.  The one must collect no signatures but not make this obvious to all the other players.  The other one must collect only one signature and give only one signature to that one person.  Again they should not make this obvious to the other players.

Give everyone the signal to start collecting signatures and while they are doing that, write down the number of the helper who is only collecting one other signature somewhere obvious to everyone on the wall of the room.  After one or two minutes make everyone stop collecting signatures.

Ask each person how many signatures they have and see who has the most.  Declare that person the winner clapping and congratulating them.  Then tell her/him the good news is they won and the bad news is that the signatures respresents how many times each person had unprotected, unsafe sex. Also, the further bad news, one person was HIV positive and this was the number of the person  you wrote on the wall. The good news is they only have one other signature on their paper, they were faithful to one partner.  You ask those two people to step forward and stand together seperate from the group.

You then see how many signatures the other person in the pair has on their paper and ask those people to come forward.  Then the people they all have on their paper come forward until everyone is standing up together except for that person who collected no other signatures, who of course practiced abstinence.

Step Two (optional):  The volunteer participant who was HIV positive makes up a credible story of who they are, how old, how many sexual partners they have had and who they are in turn, etc.  It is important that this is realistic and not exaggerated or display promiscuity.  Then trace the history of the made up story on the flipchart with everyone's help.  This is so people can clearly understand that it could be you or me.  They will also see that every time we have sex with someone else we are in reality having sex with all their past partners as well, in the sense of STD's and HIV.  It can take up to 8 (+) years for the virus to manifest itself in some cases which makes Voluntary Testing and Counselling so important.

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