A Game for Life

by Global Oneness Project — last modified 2008-10-09 15:06

Grassroot Soccer project coordinator, Nolusindiso "Titie" Plaatjie, uses soccer to educate South African youth about HIV/AIDS prevention. She describes her childhood in the poverty-stricken city of Port Elizabeth and how soccer gave her the drive to be who she is today.

Partner

Grassroot Soccer

Brief History

Grassroot Soccer, Inc. became a registered 501(c)3 charitable organization in 2002. Founder, Tommy Clark, MD conceived of the idea after having played soccer professionally in Zimbabwe where he witnessed first hand both the devastation of HIV and the fanatical popularity of soccer. Together with a group of friends who had similar experiences, he and co-founders Methembe Ndlovu, Ethan Zohn and Kirk Friedrich created Grassroot Soccer. The core group traveled to Zimbabwe in 2002 and with the support of advisory board member, Albert Bandura, consultants and local stakeholders, developed and piloted an interactive soccer-themed HIV prevention curriculum that was first implemented in Zimbabwe in 2003. After a positive independent evaluation of the project by The Children’s Health Council, a Stanford University affiliate group, GRS received a three-year program grant in 2005 from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand its work. Click here to learn more about our accomplishments and milestones.

GRS Mission
Using the power of soccer in the fight against AIDS, Grassroot Soccer provides African youth with the knowledge, skills and support to live HIV free.

Goals

To put 1.25 million African youth through the GRS program by the end of 2010 and leave a lasting legacy in southern Africa.
To utilize soccer and powerful role models to their maximum potential to reduce HIV transmission among youth.
To have the most effective HIV prevention education and life-skills curriculum in Africa.

Tactics

To continually improve our innovative, culturally sensitive and fun HIV/AIDS life-skills curriculum.
To effectively share our curriculum and concept with local implementing partners, allowing us to achieve scale in a sustainable way while making use of local capacity and infrastructure.
To empower local community role models (professional soccer players, youth sport coaches, teachers, peer educators, etc.) with the tools to educate the youth in their communities.

Partner link: http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/

Genres

Interview

Categories

Keywords

awareness, responsibility, relationship, social change, community, society, service, community initiatives, youth, Ubuntu

Video information
Produced by	Global Oneness Project
Produced	2008/08/01
Duration	17 minutes 19 seconds

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Full description

Copyright 2008, by the Contributing Authors. Cite/attribute Resource. globaloneness. (2008, October 07). A Game for Life. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from World Social Forum TV Web site: http://wsftv.net/Members/globaloneness/videos/A_Game_For_Life.mp4. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.