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Ten years ago, former Highlanders
player Tommy Clark and former Zimbabwe team captain Methembe Ndlovu launched
Grassroot Soccer (GRS), an HIV/AIDS initiative that uses football/soccer to
fight HIV/AIDS. The organization, headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, now
has an annual budget of approximately US $4.2 million and partners with
organizations like the Fédération Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Elton John AIDS
Foundation.
Clark, who spent many formative
years living and playing soccer in Africa, decided to use the influence of
African soccer players—who are heroes in their communities—as a way to break
the silence surrounding HIV. He and Ndlovu met with community leaders,
headmasters, and focus groups of children and teachers in Bulawayo and planned
a pilot project that was launched in January 2003. They worked with a
consultant to develop a culturally appropriate soccer-based curriculum and
recruited and trained 14 professional men and women soccer players as HIV
educators. Clark noted that his idea of GRS has grown from using professional
African soccer players as HIV educators to mobilizing the global soccer
community to fight the spread of HIV in many ways through a variety of partnerships
and programs.
In 2007, GRS launched several
community-based football-for-development programs across South Africa. Also,
FIFA World Cup 2010 presented an opportunity for sport-for-development
organizations like GRS to highlight soccer as an educational tool and raise the
world’s awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. GRS has been successful using the
sport as a tool for social development and has become a member of the street
football world network and a strong contributor to the Football for Hope movement.
GRS has managed the FIFA 20 Centres for 2010 Football for Hope Centre in
Khayelitsha since December 2009, and in 2013 the organization will manage the
newest Football for Hope Centre in Alexandra when it is completed.
FIFA has spent more than R59 million
in projects, including the Football for Hope Centre, as part of the FIFA 2010
World Cup Legacy Trust, and has donated approximately R450 million to the FIFA
2010 World Cup Legacy Trust accounts. According to FIFA Secretary-General
Jerome Valcke, “The trust was set up so that South African football and
[nongovernmental organizations] dealing with community development through
football can continue to be recipients of the FIFA World Cup’s financial reward
on a long-term basis.” The trust provided funds for health and 24 projects to
support basic and higher education studies, and to build capacity of current
and future football administrators in South Africa. The board of the FIFA 2010
World Cup Legacy Trust has revealed that it has approved the first 973 beneficiaries.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
