Africomnet Prize in Uganda: 'Sport Pour la Vie' receives Award for the Best multimedia HIV/AIDS strategy

Mr Ousmane Gbané, the Program coordinator, received the prize awarded to his program during an event which took place in Uganda on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala (Uganda). The prize, the first of its kind to be awarded to a francophone program, crowns the efforts of the program which was launched in August 2006 in Abidjan with PEPFAR financial support.

Let us recall that SPV (SFL) is an HIV/AIDS prevention program targeting youths aged 10-14 through soccer. The program uses the youth passion for soccer to sensitize them and engage them in sensitization activities in their community.

Since it started, the program has trained 146 coaches and 1,823 young captains (ex peer-educators) on 48 sites through 4 communalities in the city of Abidjan (the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire).

18,000 people were reached through community outreach (door-to-door, market place and bus station outreach activities) and over 24,000 people had some exposure to HIV/AIDS prevention messages during soccer tournaments.

In January 2008, during the soccer African Cup of Nations (ACN/CAN 2008), SPV program youth reached nearly 6,000 people with voluntary testing and brought 999 among them to get tested.

Indeed, these outcomes plus the involvement of soccer stars such as Touré Yaya Gnegnery from the famous Barcelona Club (Ambassador of the program) and Gouaméné Alain (member of the Ivorian Soccer Federation) won the heart of the Africomnet prize Jury.

Mrs. Traoré Regina, Resident Advisor of JHU/CCP Cote d’Ivoire, and Mr. Gbané, the Program Coordinator took advantage of their stay in Uganda to develop links with HIV/AIDS programs and share their experiences. The managers of the Urunana program in Rwanda and of the Standard Bank program in South Africa showed a real interest in the approach and are considering collaboration with JHU/CCP to launch similar initiatives in their own countries.