On April 16th, 2008 England Head Coach Fabio Capello attended an event staged by Kick 4 Life (K4L) in Maseru.
Along with former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence, Capello attended the next stage of K4L's award winning Test Your Team campaign. The initiative links football tournaments for youth with on-site HIV education and testing between matches.
At the event more than 500 youth took part in K4L's HIV educational activities, which teach youth about HIV transmission, pathology, stigma and testing in an interactive and engaging way.
Throughout the day the football and HIV educational activities successfully created an atmosphere of positive peer pressure, encouraging the youth to test en masse. Nearly 300 people were tested for HIV at the event. Those who tested positive were immediately referred to the Baylor Paediatric Clinic for further evaluation, care and treatment.
Pete Fleming, co-founder of Kick 4 Life said "The campaign links the universal power of football with HIV testing and education. In Lesotho there is a huge stigma attached to getting tested and the disease in general. Knowing your HIV status in this country is not only a springboard for staying negative but it is also a gateway for accessing free anti-retroviral services”.
In Lesotho, less than 10% of males and only 11% of females actually know their HIV status and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare estimates that close to 18,000 children are HIV positive. Currently there are fewer than 2,000 HIV positive children enrolled in anti-retroviral treatment and strong efforts are being made to reach a target of 3,500 children by the end of 2008.
Fabio Capello toured the site, observed two of the interactive HIV educational activities and gave coaching tips to one of the teams who had qualified for the final of the football tournament. The England Head Coach also observed an HIV test conducted by Population Services International (PSI), a moment he would later describe as one of the most moving experiences of his life.
Capello said: “What Kick 4 Life are doing here is fantastic and we need to encourage and support this type of programme….I suppose you could say this was a very good experience for our soul because it makes you understand the hardships in the world….I feel enriched because I have seen things that make me think and whenever you think, you get richer."
