Programs
Sports is fun. AIDS is not. Choose one.
Sports Overview
Orphans and vulnerable children and aspiring coaches alike respond to creative, fun, dynamic training programs that value juggling important life decisions as much as juggling a ball. Along with physicians and TRIAD-trained local Medical Educators, passionate professional athletes and coaches work with aspiring coaches and league executives to train them to lead the children in their own communities on and off the field.
Our coaches’ curriculum blends teaching the fundamentals of team-building, conflict resolution, sportsmanship, knowledge of the game, and skill mastery with priceless lessons about how to prevent HIV infection and how to live with the harsh reality of the pandemic. By training these coaches in federation-sanctioned techniques, we offer them not only a chance to be a mentor and role model, but a chance to have a marketable job.
The HIV/AIDS and life skills curriculum is taught as the core of the sports league local leaders create. Not only do we work to educate players and coaches about how to prevent contracting HIV, other STIs, and unwanted pregnancies, but we work to de-stigmatize those who live with HIV/AIDS. Teamwork on and off the field makes life easier. TRIAD-trained Medical Educators work with every team once a week during practices. The dynamic lessons engage these active youth in role-playing activities.
All league executives, coaches and players over the age of 15 are required to be tested for HIV three times a year. Of course, HIV status is not a factor in participation. But by requiring testing as a condition of participation, the importance of knowing one’s own status is reinforced. Equipped with information from their medical education and their testing, the league staff and participants can make well-informed decisions and lead healthier lives.
