Abstain.  Be faithful.  Condomise.   Yoweri Museveni, one of the first African leaders to acknowledge and react to the growing HIV crisis, built his prevention response on these pillars.   And, at first, it worked – Uganda’s HIV prevalence dropped from an estimated 20% in the mid1990s to around 5% about 10 years later.  But now the rates have started to grow again, and those involved in holistic HIV responses are moving away from the ABC prevention message.

Why?

First there was the phenomenon of what has been called ‘A, B and the silent C’ with many organisations promoting total abstinence from sex as the only way to be truly safe.  Which is more or less correct of course (leaving aside mother to child, needle or blood transmission) – but then any policy which involves telling 800 million people not to have sex is going to have a job on its hands.  Road accidents kill more people across Africa than anything else behind AIDS-related illnesses – but would you build a road safety campaign based on telling people not to use vehicles or cross roads?

One of the very few mercies of HIV compared to other lethal viruses is that it’s actually quite difficult to catch – you essentially have to find somebody living with the virus and then either gestate in their womb or have unprotected sex with them; even then transmission is far from inevitable.  But two of the things that every person on this planet is more or less guaranteed to do are gestate in a womb and have unprotected sex.   And when up to 40% of your community has HIV, finding someone to do those things with isn’t that difficult either.  

This is not to say that the A and the B are the wrong messages.  Delaying first sexual experience has been proven to lower vulnerability to HIV (as well as STIs and unwanted pregnancy), and fidelity from both partners in an HIV-negative relationship is a sensible strategy.   But without the C the dogma risks becoming idealistic rather than implementable, evangelistic rather than pragmatic, aspirational rather than attainable.

As people have learned more about the HIV epidemic and how it impacts upon and is amplified by every imaginable stream of human behaviour at individual, family, community, state and global level, other challenges to the ABC message have emerged.

What if you are a young woman in an African country highly affected by poverty, living within a male dominated culture and lacking the education, skills, confidence, rights or basic resources to make decisions?  You might want to Abstain, but you may not have a choice.  You might Be faithful but what if your partner has other wives or girlfriends?  How do you negotiate Condom use if your husband or partner may beat you or throw you out on the street for even suggesting it?

TackleAfrica now promote Christian Aids’ SAVE message, which provides a far more rounded approach to HIV prevention strategies.  Our training and education resources promote all of these messages, as well as abstinence and fidelity where possible and the importance of gender equality, joint decision making and respect for women. 

Safer Practises

Available medication

Voluntary testing and counselling

Empowerment

Unfortunately HIV prevention is NOT as easy as ABC.  One Chicago-based campaign promoting female condom use borrows a more up to date lyrical message from Beyonce’s Single Ladies – ‘if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it’.

Download this to learn more about SAVE, contact us, or have your say below. 

 Tom Colborne, 04/11/2010.  One Game Saves Lives

TackleAfrica promote condom use with all of our beneficiaries and with all coaches that we train as we know that discussing correct and consistent condom use does not increase the likelihood of young people having sex, but does reduce the transmission of HIV, unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.  Some of our local partners share religious beliefs that prevent them promoting condom use to young people within their communities, and so work with us because we can.  We promote condom use, abstinence and fidelity as part of our Safer Practises information.

Look out for more blogs and opinion pieces from TackleAfrica staff, volunteers, partners and beneficiaries

TackleAfrica Coaches:
Gavin Atkins, Karen Atkins

Project Description:

Tamale
Date: April 2009

For this project, TackleAfrica partnered with R.A.I.N.S (Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems). RAINS works with local communities and Development Partners to improve the quality of life of women, youth and other vulnerable groups through Grassroots Institutional Capacity Building, the promotion of human rights and sustainable use and management of resources in a culturally sensitive manner. It has concentrated it efforts since its inception in the Northern parts of Ghana.

For the first three days of the project, the coaches delivered a TackleAfrica coaching course at BISCO, a local school with an 11-a-side pitch. There were 24 coaches in attendance over three days who took part in the course, which included:

• Delivery of TackleAfrica drills to local coaches by Gavin and Karen
• ‘Rules of the game’ workshop
• Session Planning and Delivery discussion
• ‘What makes a good coach’ workshop
• Delivery of TackleAfrica drills by local coaches with feedback and evaluation from Gavin and Karen.

For the remainder of the project, Gavin and Karen delivered TackleAfrica drills to over 400 children who are part of the Goal Ghana project, another partner of TackleAfrica in Ghana. GoalGhana helps young people in poor areas receive attention, develop skills and most importantly, have fun through football. The Goal Ghana project in conjunction with R.A.I.ND.S is split into three areas – Tamale, Savelugu and Bogu-naayilli. The project culminated with a Gala Tournament in which nearly 200 players participated.

TackleAfrica Coach:
Graeme Sears

Project Description:

(i) Bolga
Date: October 2009

For the first week of the project, Graeme visited TackleAfrica partner AfriKids in Bolga. AfriKids is a Child Rights organisation working to improve life for Ghana’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Their work ranges from the more traditional children’s projects including foster homes, schools and street child centres to more groundbreaking initiatives which tackle complex cultural issues including HIV, child trafficking and child labour.

TackleAfrica had sent a team out previously in 2007, so Graeme primarily went back to see how those coaches were doing and do some follow up coaching with them. Over a 3 day period Graeme, ran a refresher course with 14 coaches in attendance. This included delivering drills from the TackleAfrica coaching manual as well as HIV education workshops. Graeme also tested some new drills which will be part of the next edition of the TackleAfrica coaching manual which is coming out in 2010.

Graeme also visited the following coaches to evaluate their delivery of the coaching manual to their teams. The opportunity to get feedback from Graeme proved very useful and helped the coaches to continue their development and give them confidence to use the coaching manual more regularly.

• Coach Ayine Nicolas: Soccer Masters U12 (15 players)
• Coach Salifu Fatwu: Juventus U17 (20 players)
• Coaches Abwbakar Malik & Azabre Paulina: Sharp Arrows Ladies FC U15 (16 players)
• Coach Ataih Albert: Harvest Academy U15 (30 players)

(ii) Tamale
Date: October 2009

In the second week, Graeme went to visit another partner, RAINS (Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems) in Tamale. TackleAfrica had sent coaches out earlier in the year to work with R.A.I.N.S, so again Graeme’s primary objective was to see how the coaches were doing, if they needed any support and demonstrate more TackleAfrica drills.

During the week, Graeme visited 9 previously trained coaches around Tamale working with over 300 players, both boys and girls, in teams of all age groups from U12 to U17. Graeme also ran a refresher course for around 20 previously trained coaches demonstrating both drills from the current manual and drills from the new manual due out in 2010.

As well as sending six coaches from the UK, TackleAfrica was excited to invite Moses Kingango from Uganda as an additional coach. Moses is a key member of our partner, KCCC in Uganda with whom we have been working for several years.

Project Description:

(i) Kisumo (Western Province) & Siaya (Nyanza Province):
Date: August 10th – 22nd

For the first 2 weeks of the project, TackleAfrica partnered with an organisation called FRACODEP (St. Francis Community Development Programme) to run activities in both Kisumu (week 1) and Siaya (week 2). This was the 2nd successive year working with FRACODEP after a very successful pilot project in 2008. FRACODEP implements a range of HIV/AIDS projects in Western Kenya supporting HIV/AIDS orphans, widows and those living with HIV, and carries out several awareness on HIV/AIDS and safer behaviour activities in their Youth, AIDS and Behavioural Change Project.

Using a model that empowers local coaches to deliver HIV messaging, the TackleAfrica coaches successfully delivered coaching courses to 100 local football coaches, teachers and peer educators in both Kisumu and Siaya; with a specific focus on training the coaches to work with the TackleAfrica coaching manual. The courses in Kisumu and Siaya lasted 5 days each and included:

- Introducing and delivering the TackleAfrica Manual to the participants
- Interactive educational sessions on ‘How to be a Good Football Coach’ and ‘How to Structure a Coaching Session’
- Q&A session with an HIV/ medical expert
- Participants delivery of TackleAfrica drills with evaluation
- Award ceremony with certificates
- Local tournaments with TackleAfrica activity

As well as local coaches from the community, invitations to participate on the course were also extended to coaches and peer educators from other organisations in Kenya including; SAIPEH, MTGK and Alive & Kicking.

(ii) Mumias (Nyanza Province):
Date: August 24th – 29th

After the first 2 weeks, Clive Fogelman stayed in Kenya to visit an organisation in Mumias called SAIPEH (Support Activities in Poverty Eradication and Health). SAIPEH started as a small acting group who travelled around in their own time to local communities to deliver educational entertainment about HIV/ AIDS; most notably dispelling the many myths about how HIV infects and spreads. This was delivered in the mother tounges of the area i.e. the tribal language; contributing greatly to the effectiveness of the message. Using a range of creative formats to bring the message across, they are particularly concerned with getting their message into schools, as a way of bringing HIV out into the open and reducing the stigma that currently exists.

Together with Wanyama Nelson and Pamela Osore (2 coaches from SAIPEH who had completed the TackleAfrca coaching course in Siaya), Clive delivered a 4-day TackleAfrica coaching course for 25 local coaches and peer educators at Mumias Secondary School for boys. Using the same structure which had worked so well in Kusmu and Siaya, the program was hugely successful in Mumias, with many members of the public and the council supporting the program.

(ii) Kilifi (Kenya Coast):
Date: August 31st – September 5th

For the final week of the project, Clive visited MTGK (Moving the Goalposts Kilifi) a girls’ youth sports and development organisation in Kilifi on the coast of Kenya. MTGK set up a sport and development programme in 2001 and now has close to three thousand girl football players. It aims to promote football excellence, youth leadership, reproductive health rights and economic empowerment to help girls and young women escape the cycle of poverty most of them live in. HIV and AIDS awareness is a central element of their overall program and currently is mainly executed through their Peer Education program in schools and is predominantly a classroom based initiative. Working with TackleAfrica was an opportunity to take the message from the classroom to the field in an interactive and creative format.

This project also provided TackleAfrica with an excellent opportunity to understand some of the challenges that women specifically face in regard to HIV/ AIDS. Rather than run 1 course for a week, MTGK arranged for Clive to visit different areas in the coastal region where MTGK has set up football leagues for women and work with the different coaches in those areas. During the week, Clive worked with around 60 women in Mnarani, Vitengeni, Kaloleni and Ganze. Clive introduced and delivered drills from the Tackle Africa manual to the coaches from each division and set up discussion groups to explore the challenges that women face on the Coast.

About the locations:

The Western and Nyanza Provinces are both located in an extremely vulnerable area of Kenya with HIV prevalence estimated at around 30% (against the national prevalence of 7.5%). Within the region, the age group 15-30yrs has been devastatingly affected by the pandemic and available statistics indicate that the youth make up 33% of those infected. (Kenya national Youth Policy 2006). High HIV/AIDS prevalence in the region has been attributed to a number of issues. Retrogressive cultural practices like widow inheritance, upon the death of the husband, non-circumcision of men, as well as sexual promiscuity along the fishing beaches, and sugar cane plantation, are some of the issues in question. Coupled with this is the fact that the province also has the highest poverty prevalence rates in the country, standing at 65%.

The Coastal Province has also become increasingly affected by HIV. According to a recent United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, commercial sex tourism is growing rapidly on the Kenyan coast, and gaining increasing acceptance as a valid way of earning an income, spurred on by a flourishing tourism industry. There are often little alternatives to earn money elsewhere, and the promise of income often lures women away from the inland provinces. Of further concern, child sex work (CSW) has become increasingly apparent along the coast. Another study by the government and UNICEF found that up to 30 percent of teenagers in some coastal areas were involved in casual sex for cash.

The coaching manual consists of a series of specially designed coaching drills that not only improve football skills but also the players’ understanding of how to stay safe from HIV/AIDS, how the virus works, challenging myths and stigma and where to go for support. The drills have been developed by TackleAfrica’s volunteer coaches during a series of football projects across Africa and will enable other volunteers and partner organisations to carry out coaching sessions that help to teach young people in Africa about HIV/AIDS in an innovative and engaging way.

Working with over 1,000 young people and 50 local ‘multipliers’, the 8 TackleAfrica coaches visited a number of locations around Accra and Tamale to ensure that the impact of the project will be sustainable by enabling local staff to continue HIV/AIDS through football sessions in the future.  Tackle Africa would like to thank local partners RAINS, SOS Ghana, Children Better Way and Goal Ghana for their support in this project.

Charlie Gamble, a trustee of TackleAfrica and author of the coaching manual comments:

“We believe that the launch of the manual - particularly at a time when football was even higher on the local agenda than usual – has enabled us to deliver crucial HIV/AIDS messages to large numbers of young people in an interactive, positive and memorable way.  Most importantly, our work with local coaches and multipliers is the first step in ensuring that the positive impact of the manual can be continued long into the future”

Dr Bella Bello Bitug, Campaigner, sport for development, currently working with SOS Ghana, adds:

“Football is a great way of reaching young people in Ghana and The Cup of Nations provided us with an excellent opportunity to raise vital issues and spread messages about HIV and AIDS. We’re really looking forward to working with TackleAfrica further, and using the coaching manual.”

Our Vision:  An Africa where all young people have the information, freedom, confidence and resources to make the right choices to protect themselves and each other from HIV

How we work:  TackleAfrica use football coaching to deliver life-saving messages about HIV to young Africans in a way that improves knowledge, deepens understanding and promotes positive long term behaviour change

Football is the world’s most popular sport – and in Africa it has attained enormous significance, breaking down barriers and providing opportunities for even the most disadvantaged to shine.

By capitalising on this interest, TackleAfrica and its local partners can create a platform that can be used to as a tool for communicating vital messages, mobilising communities to join the fight against HIV, enabling people to protect themselves properly and challenging the plethora of stigma and misconceptions that surround the disease.

Since 2003 we have been working with expert local partners in 16 sub-Saharan countries, using football as a method of reaching young people and using classroom based activities to deliver HIV related information.  In January 2007 we succesfully took that information out onto the pitch with unique coaching drills specifically designed to inform players about HIV as well as improve their football skills.

At the end of 2007 we produced our first HIV awareness through coaching manual, with an updated version published in May 2010.  We continue to work with local partners and young people across Africa,  training local coaches, teachers and partner-employed multipliers to use the manual to extend and continue the reach of our work.

What We Do

• Fund activities organised by our partners in Africa including youth football tournaments, peer education training, HIV awareness/testing football events and projects to encourage safe behaviour amongst young people
• Build the capacity of local partners with coaching projects and by distributing our HIV awareness through football coaching manual
• Train African coaches, peer educators, youth leaders and teachers to deliver HIV messaging through football
• Train UK football coaches to deliver HIV messaging through football in Africa, raise funds for our partners and raise awareness in the UK of the HIV pandemic in Africa