Lesedi-Lechabile has begun rolling out its World Cup programme to hundreds of participants in the Oppenheimer Park in Thabong, using the power of football to reach people with messages around HIV prevention.

The programme consists of a soccer tournament, life skills training and discussion around HIV prevention messages which include partner reduction, abstinence, delay of sexual debut, consistent and correct condom usage, medical circumcision, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, and voluntary counselling and testing.

As a build-up to the opening ceremony of the FIFA 2010 World Cup South Africa™, Lesedi-Lechabile in partnership with Footballers for Life launched a soccer tournament which saw participation by a pool of youth from the neighbourhood, who were also taken through HIV messaging such as abstinence and delay of sexual debut.

The event started with a vocal rendition of the national anthem, led by Matlhjabeng local municipality representative Mr Adam Moema. In his opening speech, local teacher Mr Simon Ranyane extended his welcome to all people present and wished the participating soccer teams success in their endeavours.

Eight teams took part in the five-a-side soccer tournament, and the winners were dressed in Scrutinize T-shirts and awarded Kick TB 2010 soccer balls.

Apart from the soccer tournament, community members have the opportunity to watch World Cup matches on the big screen erected at the venue.

Said one parent: “This is helping us by keeping our children safe and entertained, especially since the holidays are very long.”

“Things went well, even though the attendance was not as good as we had expected. We attribute that to the extremely cold weather. We get a lot of support from the church that has hosted us. But the advantage of the not-so-big crowd is that small numbers are manageable, and enables us to have interpersonal, reflective moments with the audience,” says Lindi Matsi, programme manager for Lesedi Lechabile.

Lesedi-Lechabile is a primary health care organisation which is funded by USAID through Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa, and has been working on HIV prevention for several years.