HIV & AIDS Awareness Tournament
Family Impact organized this tournament in conjunction with the Bulawayo Christian League; the organizers of the Soccer and Netball leagues for teams from the different churches.
The soccer league currently includes 9 teams from different denominations. 5 of these churches also have netball teams.
The objectives of the tournament were:
- to bring HIV & AIDS awareness to all the players
- for the league team members to interact with each other
It was a requirement for each of the participating teams to an HIV & AIDS awareness session in between their matches. Teams were awarded more points for attending these sessions than for actually winning matches. Family Impact presented the SAVE model to all the teams individually. World Vision presented a Behaviour Change session when that addressed all the teams during the HIV break.
There was lots if interaction between the participants and facilitators with many questions being asked. Lots of t-shirts and books were given away as spot prizes for correct answers to questions. this added to the excitement of the day.
The teams that played in the tournament all had to use an HIV related name. They included Family Impact, Word of Life Entumbane, Sangano reApostora, United Congregational Church Southern Africa, United Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, Nazarene Mpopoma, Bulawayo Christian Centre and New Creation. The two SDA teams were unable to participate as the games were played on a Saturday.
Various partners contributed to the success of this inaugural tournament. World Vision provided refreshments for all the teams and officials while the National AIDS Council contributed by supplying t-shirts that were given as prizes. Other corporate and individual donors gave cash or balls towards the prizes. These included In-Trun Trading, Mr Phil Biggs, Steves Motors and anonymous giver.
The event was graced by Mr Methembe Ndlovu, a former national team player who is now a coach and ZIFA Board Member for Development. He also runs a project that uses soccer to fight HIV among the youth. He gave a brief address to the players.
Sangano re Apostora won the soccer tournament and the netball prize went to Nazarene.