New continent-wide HIV-prevention initiative harnessing Africa’s passion for soccer combines a sustained media campaign with community-level outreach and education programs using soccer to promote healthy living and responsible choices among African youth.

Using the tagline Football For an HIV-Free Generation this new pan-African initiative uses the power of sport as the impetus for innovative large scale, comprehensive youth focused HIV prevention. The initiative taps into excitement around the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup by using soccer as the entry point for an evidence based strategy that draws on best practice for HIV prevention, youth communication and sports for development.

Combining outreach programs for youth including educational, leadership and life skills development with a sustained pan-African HIV/AIDS education and information media campaign, this effort aims to:

1. §  Help accelerate reductions in the rate of HIV infection among young Africans;
2. §  Re-engage young people across Africa in the fight against HIV/AIDS;
3. §  Help boost leadership and increased country-level focus and funding of more concerted large scale HIV-prevention across Africa.

UNAIDS Executive Director, Dr. Peter Piot said: “Soccer offers an exciting platform for intensifying HIV prevention efforts across Africa helping promote self esteem and supporting the development of protective communication and life skills. Combining soccer with community based programmes and intensive media outreach will give a welcome boost to ongoing HIV prevention work on the continent and will be particularly powerful in the months building up to the first World Cup to be hosted in Africa.”

By building on the existing expertise and infrastructure of established organizations and local partners, this initiative will use a large-scale pan-African approach to mobilize youth across the continent in support of the goal of an HIV-free generation. This will be achieved through a three-pronged strategy that includes:

Community Based Model: Community-based outreach and services component will build on the successful models developed by Grassroot Soccer and loveLife that use soccer as a tool for HIV prevention education. The initiative will expand through a social franchising model partnering with and using peer motivation and youth leadership development to build the capacity of existing local community-based organizations. An initial focal point of the initiative will be to support the educational content of the Football For Hope Centers that are being donated in 15 African countries

as part of FIFA’s 20 Centres for 2010 Campaign.

Sustained Media Campaign: Implemented in partnership with the African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (ABMP)—a pan-African coalition of 59 broadcast companies operating across 37 countries—the media campaign will build on the commitment of airtime and other resources from the broadcast companies to develop media programming that connects with the synergies of the 2010 World Cup, as well as the ABMP’s existing campaign promoting the concept of an HIV-free Generation.

Advocacy, Partnership and Resource Development: Evidence shows that resources for effective HIV prevention are severely lacking. A concerted advocacy campaign to promote new leadership in support of more concerted HIV prevention and increased resources (in-country and international) will be driven by UNAIDS and CSI+ with the aim of encouraging scaled up prevention across Africa.

For more information go to www.F4hivfree.org