HIV/Aids in Africa

In Sub-Saharan Africa alone there are 22 million people living with HIV, with 2 million Adult and Child Deaths from AIDS in 2007.

A large number of those infected are children: many of whom are in cricket playing nations in Africa. It is not just medicine that is needed, but education and a focus on changing behavioural patterns.

The link between Sport (particularly cricket) and HIV/AIDS is not an obvious one to everyone. However, we found that sports coaches are in a unique position to impart a message of staying healthy and doing so within a fun and trusting environment. They often have the respect of those that they coach, and are not perceived in the same negative way that sometimes children perceive their teachers or a health worker. They are ideally placed to talk about the importance of staying healthy to fulfil someone's true potential, both on the field and in life generally.

The CWB Approach

CWB is about cultivating developing coach education and participation in playing the game, but this goes hand-in-hand with raising awareness of HIV to save lives and empower those who participate in the charity's activities.

The CWB approach can be summarised as follows:

• To build the technical expertise of local cricket authorities and groups.
• To provide essential equipment that allow more children to play the game.
• To mainstream safe-sex and protective behaviours to halt the spread of HIV through cricket coaching and training sessions.
• To ensure equality of treatment for all who are coached, irrespective of age, gender or their HIV status.
• To help combat gender inequalities by having boys and girls training, learning and playing together.
• To empower children by learning a disciplined sport.

Since 2005 CWB has already improved the coaching skills of over 1,500 youth and adult cricket coaches. The charity has also coached over 15,000 children, who will be the next generation of cricketers, passing on skills and knowledge in cricket grounds, schools and communities, both about cricket and about the disease.

Moreover, lives will be saved as positive and healthy behaviour spreads amongst children due to increased awareness about HIV and how to prevent it, rather than the spread of HIV itself.

HIV/AIDS mainstreaming methodology

CWB is about cultivating developing coach education and participation in playing the game, but this goes hand-in-hand with raising awareness of HIV/AIDS to save lives and empower those who participate in the project's activities.

CWB methodology:

• Empowering coaches to confidently inform participating children of the dangers of HIV/AIDS through innovative associations with the language and form of cricket
• Stressing the ABC approach – abstinence, be faithful to your partner and condom use: effective HIV/AIDS prevention is based on all three being utilised not just one
• Making the case for regular VCT testing
• Discussion of the limits of anti-retroviral drugs and the debilitating effect of AIDS on society and the development of the country
• The equality of treatment for those who have HIV/AIDS

UN AIDS updates

• Download the UN AIDS Report 2008
• Download the UN AIDS Report 2009
• Download the UN AIDS Report 2010