TackleAfrica

TackleAfrica projects include:

HIV Awareness Football Tour - West and East Africa, 2003/4

Twenty volunteers from across the UK set off on a six-month HIV/AIDS awareness football tour of West and East Africa. Over the course of the six months, the project's team took part in 16 different HIV awareness events and played more than 40 games of football. The team also took part in HIV awareness seminars and workshops, street parades, cultural evenings, and schools visits - all designed to increase people's awareness and understanding of HIV/AIDS and to challenge people to take positive steps to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS.

The team distributed leaflets, posters, and other materials to help raise HIV/AIDS awareness, and also distributed sports equipment (as an incentive) - hoping to help local partners continue to run similar events in the future, and encouraging the local community to take part in the activities. The tour was held between September 2003 and April 2004 in the following countries: Morocco, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

The Mbale Sports Centre

TackleAfrica teamed up with a local partner, AIDS Care Education and Training (ACET), on this project to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people in Uganda. The project built a Sport and HIV/AIDS Education Centre in the country. The Centre is used to reach young people with information about HIV/AIDS prevention.

PfP HIV/AIDS Awareness Project with 'Kabaa Young Cobras' and 'Tulula Youth United' Football Clubs, in Machakos District Kenya

In central Kenya TackleAfrica teamed up with Partnerships for Peace (PfP) to run a project in the Machakos district. Fifty members of the Kabaa Young Cobras Football Club and Tulila United Football Club, aged 15-24 years, were trained as peer educators to be able to inform young people about HIV/AIDS at football events. The project activities were expected to reach an additional 10,000 young people aged five to 30 years old.

The project involved eight one-day training seminars for all club members to equip them with accurate and relevant information about HIV/AIDS. The seminars were also used to plan the events and help the members design the messages and methods of delivery that they would use during the sporting activities.

The objective of the project was to promote positive behaviour change among young people by providing them with information about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health so that they could make informed decisions.

CCFMC Youth HIV/AIDS Behaviour Change Project

The organisation worked with the Comprehensive Course on the Franciscan Mission Charism (CCFMC), a Kenyan non-governmental organisation (NGO), on a youth HIV/AIDS behaviour change project. The project used the popularity of football among the youth to pass on HIV/AIDS messages. It aimed to equip youth and the community with knowledge and skills for curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to facilitate, establish, and support activities among youth that would enhance their active participation in efforts to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. CCFMC used the project to address socio-cultural issues that relate to HIV/AIDS and to help reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy amongst adolescents in Kenya.

The project was based on a tournament model, with build-up taking place in two areas - Siaya and Chiga - with a series of nine build-up events at a sub-parish level followed by final matches between the winning teams.

During these events, HIV/AIDS messages were passed on through printed T-shirts and caps, posters and banners, as well as through guest speakers from local government. CCFMC activities also included:

• peer education activities in groups;
• facilitating youth groups and interschool competitions;
• coordinating with local health facilities to monitor treatment seeking behaviour change among the youth;
• promoting of information through football, songs, and poems among the youth;
• distributing of information, education, and communication (IEC) materials; and
• promoting voluntary counselling and testing for HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS, Youth, Children.

TackleAfrica was founded in May 2002 by a group of young people from the UK who had all lived or worked in Africa at some point in their lives. The organisation was awarded charitable status in October 2002. According to TackleAfrica, their work focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa, the part of the world most affected by HIV/ AIDS. They note that an estimated 24.5 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2005 with approximately 2.7 million new infections occurring during that year. TackleAfrica believes that the 18-35 years age group are the most affected - an indication that it is the economically productive segment of the population which is hardest hit.