UNAids partners FAM in Aids fight

As if to underline the belief that football is more than a game, UNAids has partnered FAM to use the sport for promoting HIV information and services among the youth. The campaign is dubbed ‘Protect the Goal’.

The partnership was disclosed at a pre-launch press conference at FAM’s Chiwembe Technical Centre in Blantyre yesterday.

UNAids country coordinator Amakobe Sande and FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda said the development follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the continent’s football governing body CAF and UNAids earlier this year.

“It goes without saying that football is the most popular sport in the world and also here in Malawi and most of the young people follow and play the game,” said Sande.

“UNAids is concerned that the youth, especially the adolescents have not been targeted enough in our HIV prevention programmes. When you hear that only 42 percent of young people aged between 15 and 24 have accurate and comprehensive knowledge of HIV and that 6 700 new infections occurred in 2012 among the adolescents aged 15-19 [translating to 18 infections on a daily basis], there is an urgent need to equip them with the right information and ensure they access the services they need to protect themselves,” she said.

According to information sourced by The Nation, ambassadors for the campaign will be two Super League of Malawi stars as well as one women football star who will be unveiled during the official launch of the campaign on Sunday at Silver Stadium in Lilongwe.

“These champions [ambassadors] will represent the ‘Protect the Goal’ campaign and promote safe sexual behaviours, HIV testing and counselling [HTC], voluntary medical male circumcision and condom use. The campaign will continue until the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.

“The campaign will also be rolled out at regional and community level, training 990 young players and coaches on HIV and Aids prevention. A national youth Under-17 tournament will be organised from January to July 2014, culminating in a final match,” said Sande.

The UNAids country representative, who was accompanied by her organisation’s consultant Aurilie Andriamliason, said their hope is that after six months, all the youth will have a comprehensive knowledge about HIV and Aids, get tested and be referred to the right service.

“We are also hoping to reduce stigma and discrimination and mobilising the community for effective HIV responses,” said Sande.

She said other countries such as South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Namibia and Mozambique are already building up the momentum. Other partners include National Aids Commission (NAC), UNFPA, Oxfam, PSI, Macro and NYCOM.

In his remarks, Nyirenda admitted that football in Malawi has never stood out to actively participate in the HIV prevention fight, “this campaign is, therefore, the first step to carefully target the most high-risk group in the fight.”

He said FAM has outlined objectives in the campaign through communication of prevention and HIV treatment messages to all Under-17 teams across the country.