The St Francis Community Developers HIV prevention programme recently donated sport gear to the Orealla/Siparuta communities in Region Six.

The items which included cricket bats and balls, footballs, volleyballs and uniforms, were handed over to the Chairperson of the Orealla/Siparuta Sports Association Paul Moore on Wednesday at UNICEF headquarters on Brickdam. According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release St Francis is collaborating with UNICEF to “provide community capacity building and integration of sports in HIV awareness” and mobile Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) services to Orealla/Siparuta.

President of the St Francis group Alex Foster said the project aims to attract the attention of youths in the two communities through sport clubs. He said UNICEF assisted his club in reaching out to the communities.

UNICEF Representative Johannes Wedenig noted that the activity is important because sport is vital for development.
Wedenig said that a particular objective of UNICEF is to support interior children and adolescents in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He said that sport for development is not only a great tool for fighting HIV, but it is also important for enhancing healthy lifestyles.

Meanwhile, Moore said he was grateful to the club and UNICEF for recognizing the need and for reaching out to the communities. The two communities jointly have a cricket, football, and volley ball club with about 300 members.

According to GINA the St Francis club is located at J.C. Chandisingh Avenue in Rose Hall Town provides in-house and mobile VCT along with HIV/AIDS education, community mobilization and outreach among institutions and communities.
The club established its first VCT Stand Alone Site in 2003; funded by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health’s National AIDS Programme Secretariat.