This was another Tackle Africa contact we had arranged to
visit before we set off. We again wanted to film the work that was happening
here and see for ourselves how football was being used to educate the local youngsters
around the dangers and prevention of HIV. It wasn’t just a place for young
people to play football though, as the site is used as a drop in centre for
local children to use to meet each other, get counselling for a variety of
issues, learn computer and gardening skills and be given food.
We were shown around the place and it was clear that the local community were benefitting from having a place like this for the young people to come to. The children were certainly thankful as many of them spoke to us about how important it was for them to get emotional and educational support in an area where HIV was so prevalent. It was also a place where they could get something to eat which was vital as for many of them, it would be their only meal of the day.
We filmed and spoke with the local coaches, who were using the Tackle Africa coaching manual to teach the young people about HIV. I think we all agreed that this was definitely one of the best examples of how effective the manual can be in educating young people through football. The head coach (Geoffrey Msiska) was amazing at communicating the football message from each drill but then explaining how this relates to HIV. It was a real privilege to watch him talk openly with so many youngsters and to see them respond so positively to the information they were being given.
We also went to see the health centre – many of the patients there are suffering badly from the effects of HIV/AIDS. There are also newborn babies whose mothers are HIV positive and many elderly who are struggling to get by each day. What was clear from walking around and speaking to people was the positivity they felt from being there. The nurses helped them so much to feel cared for and looked after – they also helped in counselling so many of the patients who had suffered from the stigmas surrounding the disease in their different communities. The health centre also had a nursery school attached for HIV orphans to go to school. We only had a brief chance to walk round but again it was clear how happy the children were to have a place like this to go to.
Finally we visited another CARA site where they had an educational support programme for HIV positive people. The idea was to educate HIV positive people in a variety of skills, including business, carpentry and agriculture. They then could take the skills they learnt here and use them in their different communities. This then helps to show how HIV positive people can do the same things as everyone else and that there is no need for them to be marginalised from the communities they belong to. We knew many of the students there from playing football with them the day before (match report to follow) and it was great to see such enthusiasm from all the students there. Many of them told us about how much their lives had changed as a result of being on a programme like this and how they were learning to live positively from day to day.
As I said we went there to film and report on Tackle Africa’s work and to see how the manual was being used. To see that it was being used really effectively was extremely heartwarming – to then see so many other parts of this organisation making such a valuable difference to people living with HIV was truly amazing.
Andy