WINDHOEK – UNAIDS awarded the Brave and Young Gladiators with honorary medals, trophies and certificates as a token of appreciation for the successful ‘Protect the Goal’ girls programme, which sees many young girls take up important roles in the fight against HIV and AIDS through sports.
During the event that took place last Thursday the UNAIDS Partnership and Social Mobilization Adviser, Sarita Sehgal, and the Secretary General of the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Barry Rukoro, together with head coach Jacqui Shipanga, urged the Young Gladiators and the Brave Gladiators to seriously take up their roles in the fight against AIDS and to become true ambassadors of the ‘Protect the Goal’ campaign. The campaign is a global initiative that highlights the value of football as a tool for social change and aims to raise awareness about HIV with a simple message, which is to protect yourself from HIV as you would protect your goalposts during a football match. It further aims to mobilize young people to commit to HIV prevention through sport.
Sehgal highlighted the need to focus Namibia’s HIV prevention efforts on young people, and especially young women. She explained that recent studies estimate that over 40 percent of new HIV infections occur among young people aged 15-24 years old, and approximately 67 percent of these newly infected young people are female. As talented sportswomen, she emphasized that the Gladiators team members are ideal messengers for the ‘Protect the Goal’ campaign. Rukoro compared himself to a king saying he wants to protect his girls. “But the only ones who can protect you are you, yourselves” he said, urging them to act as role models for their peers and to make the right decisions. Other sponsors of the campaign include NFA’s Galz and Goals, NABCOA, SCORE and Unicef.
By Staff Reporter