In March 2009, streetfootballworld’s Mike Geddes visited streetfootballworld network member Kick4Life in Lesotho and took part in the “Test your Team” event. In interviews and activities he met an inspiring team of young coaches who use their experiences to help others and to fight the stigma of HIV/AIDS. Here is their story:

Lerato picks up the microphone and strides out over the grass to a burst of applause from the hundreds of children sitting on the threadbare field in downtown Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. She only occasionally glances down at her notes as she introduces herself with a few facts: her name, where she’s from, and what it’s like to be HIV-positive.

By the end of the day, seven of the children staring up at Lerato on this warm, sunny morning will have discovered that, like her, they are infected with the HIV virus. They will also have learned that it doesn’t mean it’s the end of their lives, where they can get help and advice and, most importantly, how to avoid infecting others.

Lerato found out her status three years ago. For many young people in Lesotho this news would be overwhelming, a reason to give up or to deny it entirely. But Lerato chose a different path. Working with streetfootballworld network member Kick4Life, she travels to schools and communities around Lesotho and talks to children about why it’s so important to get tested and know their status. Lerato is seventeen years old.

“It’s best if people hear this kind of thing from someone who has been through it,” she says. “Sometimes people can tell them something because they have been told to say it, but I tell them that this is how it is, because I am living this experience”.

Lesotho, a small, mountainous kingdom rising out of South Africa, suffers from one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world; around 23% of the country’s population is HIV-positive. For many people, here and across Africa, the thought of finding out you have the HIV virus is equivalent to receiving a death sentence. Many choose simply not to know, and then go on to infect others. The stigma surrounding testing, and people’s reluctance to confront their status, are as big a threat to the future of this country as the disease itself.

Lerato had the courage. “I was a little scared when I went for my test,” she says. “But then I saw that this is reality and I decided I wouldn’t let it change me. In fact I decided to use it as an advantage.

“Now with Kick4Life I get to do so many things. I get to meet youth groups, talk to people in schools and meet some very important people”.

Kick4Life’s Vodacom ‘Test Your Team’ events, like the one introduced by Lerato, bring together hundreds of children from local schools to take part in a football tournament. HIV testing and counseling tents are set up side by side with the football pitches, and throughout the day each team and its supporters are encouraged to get tested. Expert counselors are on hand to talk to the children before and after the simple, five-minute test.

“The innovation of these events is that the counseling and testing are actually part of the football schedule,” says Football for Hope’s Programme Development Manager Paola Peacock-Friedrich, who created the concept whilst working in Lesotho for the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative.

“If someone finds out they are HIV-positive they will know there is a solution because local pediatric AIDS clinics are here on-site. Anti-retroviral drugs are available free in Lesotho and it’s important that anyone who finds out they are positive understands the next steps”.

In between the games of football, Kick4Life coaches lead the children through a series of games and activities designed to teach the children about HIV and AIDS, how the disease spreads and what they can do to avoid it.

“Outside events like this there is a very negative peer pressure against getting tested,” says Pete Fleming, who founded Kick4Life in 2005.

“There is a just a huge stigma associated with it. A 14-year-old boy would be very unlikely to go to a clinic to get tested. What we want to do with events like this is create a different atmosphere, a positive peer pressure where young people encourage each other to get tested. 85% of the kids getting tested here today will be getting tested for the first time. We want them to get into the habit of getting tested, and knowing their status.”

So far over six thousand young people like Lerato have been tested for HIV at these events, with those testing positive immediately referred for counseling and treatment at their local clinic.

streetfootballworld network member Kick4Life uses football to teach young people in the African kingdom of Lesotho about HIV and AIDS, and why it’s so important to know your status.