The Kicking AIDS Out network of organizations work in collaboration to use sport as a tool for effective HIV/AIDS education. Within this concept, sport and play activities are designed to deliver HIV/AIDS information and build life skills. The concept takes advantage of the widely enjoyable and highly influential capacity of sport and play. Sport provides not only a medium to bring people together, but it also is an effective platform to develop safe spaces where strong trained leaders can become mentors who address sensitive subject matters around healthy living and disease prevention.…Sport can be used in different ways as an effective tool in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Not only is it a fun and exciting way to bring people together, but it also provides opportunities to influence knowledge and behaviour through the creation of meaningful mentoring relationships between participants and coaches. At the same time, there is the potential to affect the experiences of the participants by placing emphasis on enhancing the life skill learning that is already inherently learned through participation in sport.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises the importance of play and has established that every child has the right to play. At its core, sport is organised play. But, the effectiveness of using sport as a tool for development draws on two different strengths: one is the ability of sport to amass people of all ages and the other is its potential to enhance individual growth and development.
Sport and physical activity draw people together and this creates an environment conducive to sharing positive messages about HIV and AIDS and other health related issues. Sports festivals and tournaments function as venues from where information campaigns can be launched. Important relationships are born and nurtured in sporting arenas. Sport fosters meaningful exchanges between participants across geographic borders and from different ethnic backgrounds and social differences that promote learning and information sharing.
Empowering youth with a significant role in organising and facilitating physical activity further capitalises on the power of sport to teach valuable life lessons. Through training youth to have increased responsibility to plan and facilitate sport, youth learn the values of citizenship, leadership and commitment. While community benefits from organised sports activities, the youth leaders gain confidence to manage a variety of different community roles and responsibilities.
Participating in sport can be an important foundation for individual physical and social development. Children learn valuable skills through playing such as communication, decision making, team work and fair play. Well delivered sports activities conducted by qualified coaches can enhance potential for the participants to learn and develop important skills that are vital tools in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Because it provides a platform for the learning of essential life skills, there has been a recent focus on enhancing the place of sport as a vital arena for achieving important societal goals and being a vehicle for development.
Well organised sport offers opportunities for the development of physical, technical, tactical and mental elements of sport performance, as well as co-operation and team work. The mastering of these skills builds self confidence, which in turn may lead to increased self esteem. Both of these qualities form the foundation for youth empowerment. Self confidence and self esteem are vital elements which form the foundation for strong, constructive and positive decision making.
If sports participation offers opportunities to succeed, and to develop both self confidence and self esteem, then sport can play an important role in the development of the individual. Life skills such as conflict resolution, communication, cooperation, goal setting, physical training, decision making and healthy nutrition, may be applied outside of the sporting field.
Sport, with its strength and influence in community and individual development, is increasingly being recognized as an attractive and powerful vehicle in addressing serious health issues such as HIV and AIDS. Sport and physical activity offer a unique opportunity to provide HIV/AIDS information and various life skills. The forum that sport provides is non-threatening, attractive to youth, and provides a fun, comfortable, safe environment where HIV/AIDS can be openly discussed, for both boys and girls. The Kicking AIDS Out curriculum trains youth sport leaders to become skilled in a peer-to-peer approach that they can adopt in their sport programs and activities that they are already leading. Kicking AIDS Out promotes that youth will be more receptive to the information and education through a peer-to-peer approach that is integrated into existing and well organized sport programming. Young people relate well to people of similar age, background, and interests. Trained Kicking AIDS Out coaches and youth leaders provide excellent role models for other youth, many of whom may not have no parents to look to for guidance.