In May 2010, TackleAfrica published our second ‘HIV education through Football Coaching’ Manual. 

The new manual, launched to coincide with the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, was written after 2 years of feedback on our initial coaching manual published in 2008.   We consulted with our African partners and our beneficiaries to find out which drills worked best, which needed developing, and what new material was necessary.

The new manual contains 2 new sections:  Living with HIV and Relationships.    Living with HIV contains drills which emphasise the importance of adherence to HIV medication and the risk involved in having multiple concurrent sexual partners.   Relationships focusses on the advantages of joint decision making for couples, and the importance of gender equality in order to give young people the information power to protect themselves.

In response to requests from our African partners, the manual also involves more HIV information,  important life skills such as confidence and leadership and drills specifically highlighting the role of TB and sexually transmitted infections in the HIV story.  Authored in chief by TackleAfrica trustee Charlie Gamble, the manual also contains drills written by TackleAfrica UK coaching volunteers Clive Fogelman, Jason Weinrabe and Paul Stevens, as well as Ugandan coach Emma Ngabirano. 

We firmly believe that the new TackleAfrica coaching manual is the most sophisticated and comprehensive HIV-education-through-football curriculum available, and are already rolling out its use across Africa.   Driven by a constant desire to improve and develop our materials and stay at the forefront of HIV programming, we are already gathering feedback and writing drills for the next version of the manual.

For a copy of the coaching manual, to learn more about becoming a UK volunteer or working with us as a partner organisation in Africa, please contact Claire at info@tackleafrica.org