Pitchside HIV testing and counselling in Nairobi
This project's parent organization is TackleAfrica
It operates in Pan-Africa
It uses Football (Soccer)
Entered the Sport for Health Award
More about Pitchside HIV testing and counselling in Nairobi
TackleAfrica works with local partners to deliver innovative HIV education through football coaching sessions to young Africans, training and supporting coaches to teach young people about sexual health on the football pitch in a way that they enjoy, remember and understand.
This innovative project goes a step further by also training coaches to be voluntary HIV testing counsellors, offering private, non-pressurised pitchside HIV testing services.
We've chosen this issue because despite much success in increasing young Kenyans' knowledge about HIV, takeup of clinical services remains a challenge, with only 58% of young people in our programmes reporting that they know their HIV status. When we spoke to the players, they said that this was because clinics were intimidating places, and were often far from where they lived, adding further barriers to an already difficult process.
We decided to overcome this by turning the football pitch not only into a place for learning about and openly discussing HIV and sexual health, but also a safe and private place to find out your HIV status and access counselling with a youth-friendly accessible coach and role-model.