ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of a sport-for-development non-governmental organization (NGO) in Zambia. Sport is being recognized for the contribution it can make to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly as a potential tool for HIV/AIDS preventative programmes. Sports-orientated HIV/AIDS preventative programmes have become a valuable tool for reaching out to populations that are at risk, particularly those aged 15-24 years. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has so far proved to be the greatest pandemic the world has ever faced. Millions of lives both old and young have been lost across the globe but mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Sports-based HIV/AIDS education programmes have become prominent among young people’s activities in the region’s deprived communities. The United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force for Sport for Development and Peace stated that such sports programmes are a powerful tool for mobilising societies to communicate key messages such as HIV/AIDS preventative messages (United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force 2003). Women and girls remain the most vulnerable to the pandemic. In discussing the scourge
of HIV/AIDS and sport, the focus will be on young people, gender and sex education programmes. Sex education environments will be used in this chapter to help elaborate the established prominent role of youth-led sex education programmes using sport. Due to the high rate of prevalence among women and girls, the number of projects focused on empowerment of girls and women are a clear indication that HIV/AIDS is a disease of inequalities (UNAIDS 2008). The chapter starts by presenting a brief history of Zambia and the economic hardships
faced by its citizens, and examining how poverty levels have exacerbated the spread of HIV/AIDS. It is in the midst of economic hardships that sport-for-development as a sector emerged and gained its significance based on initiatives to address HIV/AIDS and other MDGs such as gender equality. This chapter, therefore, goes on to explore generally the aims of the case study project; how it is delivered and funded; and how the project’s targets relate to wider policy goals at community, regional and national level. In doing so it also highlights the mismatch between national HIV targets and those of sport-for-development in general.
