Cricket used to promote HIV awareness

Young people in South Africa have benefitted from an innovative cricket project aimed at raising awareness of HIV and AIDS.

The project, run in conjunction with loveLife, built on links that had been established during ICC events that had been held in South Africa in 2007 and 2009 as part of the Think Wise programme.

Think Wise is the ICC's social responsibility programme in partnership with UNAIDS, UNICEF and the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) which uses cricket to promote awareness about HIV and respect, support and inclusion for people living with the disease.

The project was piloted at the Orange Farm loveLife Y-Centre in Gauteng, South Africa. The Y-Centre is located in a marginalised community that facilitates access to information, opportunity and services that young people would otherwise not have access to.

Lisa Adolph, Head-Games, loveLife, informed that the project was an unqualified success because of the number of youngsters it reached out to in a focused area.

The key aspect of the project was specialised cricket training for youngsters from the chosen area with messages on prevention of HIV Aids and other matters of healthy sexuality. The youngsters from various schools in the area also played cricket matches with a grand finale of the project held on 11 September.

"It (project) helped spread awareness of HIV prevention, tracked behavioural change among teenagers. A total of 120 youngsters from the schools of surrounding areas of Orange Farm were selected to play and understand various issues," said Adolph.

The important aspect of the project was that for once cricket reached to a group of children in this area. For most children the easier option was to play volleyball or football.

"loveLife always looks at sports to send out key messages. When the ICC and loveLife got together to send the message through cricket, the sport was considered expensive in the area because of the cost of equipment. But with the sport growing in South Africa, it was easier to see why cricket was loved in the area," informed Adolph.

Two teams of girls (24 in all) were also initially part of the competition. In the end there were around 90 boys from senior and junior groups who finished with the project. A loveLife project usually focuses on the age group of 12-19. In this project three boys in all were below the age of 12, with the youngest participant in the project being nine years old.

The project began with a two-week pre-evaluation period which was followed by cricket training after school. The children were then trained on healthy sexuality and also about understanding themselves.

The weekly schedule was divided thus: Tuesday: Volunteers went to assigned schools to teach team values, sexual health messages; Wednesday: initiation into cricket with training by coaches and playing matches; Thursday: Lesson on team values; Saturday: More cricket matches.

The juniors played their matches on a Wednesday, senior boys on Thursday and Saturdays were for games between the senior and junior boys over twenty overs. The girls played each other on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

"We tried to understand what the kids knew about their bodies, prevention of AIDS, do they speak openly to adults about sex," said Adolph.

"During the games we looked at team vision and goal-setting. You need team work in those kinds of things. We also dealt with challenges with regards to peer pressure on smoking, drinking or substance abuse."

An evaluation of the project will now take place, before a decision to roll-out the project will be taken.