In 2010, on World AIDS Day, Zimbabwean footballers, together with other celebrities and the US Ambassador, Charles Ray, publicly tested for HIV. Commonly, celebrities in Zimbabwe fail to handle the wealth and fame that comes with their success. They stray from their normal lives and associate themselves with promiscuity and lose the status of being role models in society.

The United States Embassy is supporting a partnership between the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe (FUZ) and Population Services International (PSI) to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The US Embassy, through the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) and PSI, have decided to take the HIV/AIDS campaigns within the football fraternity to the next level. The US through its PEPFAR programme will donate USD60, 000 to the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe. PSI will provide technical support by conducting HIV/AIDS education programmes to all football players drawn from the 16 local football teams. The programme topics will dwell on male circumcision, condom use, and reduction of concurrent sexual partners, together with the importance of knowing one’s status. PSI is to engage action into these trainings to encourage footballers to play it safe on the pitch and off the pitch. Ambassador Ray encouraged footballers to share the knowledge they will receive from these trainings with their fans to help curb the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people.

FUZ’s project will run under the theme, “Don’t Play, Lets Substitute”. This idea came to the union because of its concern over footballer’s health, which is of paramount importance to their fitness and in turn, they careers.

Soccer is one of Zimbabwe’s favourite sports with a huge fan base and several young aspiring football players. It is our hope that through this initiative our beloved football players will take a firm stance and be role models in society to help in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

This entry was posted on May 20th, 2011 at 11:19 am by Elizabeth Nyamuda and is filed under Activism, Inspiration, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.