Tomorrow's football stars line up for today's AIDS fight

Ghana's soccer team have qualified for the World Cup for the very first time, and it is not only the fans that are cheering. So too are health campaigners, who hope that football fever might boost the fight against AIDS. For the past three years, some of Ghana's most promising young talents have been learning not only ball skills and match tactics, but also how to protect themselves from the HI-virus at a soccer academy just outside the capital, Accra. Now when the 60 youngsters go home for the holidays or play tournaments in Ghana and overseas, they are perfectly placed to spread the word about safe sex and dispel some of the popular misconceptions about the disease. And because football is a national pastime -- from the beaches of the Gold Coast to the backstreets of Accra, you never have to look very hard to find a game --- people are inclined to listen. "When the kids go out from here, they can influence their peers," explained Sam Arday, a former national coach who is now technical director at the academy. "They have become ambassadors." Ghana has an HIV prevalence rate among adults of 3.1 percent, not the highest in West Africa, but Ghanaian officials caution that there is no room for complacency and the fight must continue. Mahadi Abubakar, an up and coming striker at the academy talks openly about the things he learnt from the HIV awareness training that was provided by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Mahadi Abubakar, striker and HIV activist

"Before they came, I had seen a condom but I didn't know how to put it on," the 20-year-old said. "And previously I thought you could catch AIDS from just associating with somebody who was infected, standing next to them or shaking their hand." Equipped with the facts, he has since talked to his friends back home in the northeast corner of the country. "My friends thought I was bluffing at first but later some took it very seriously, especially when I suggested they put themselves in the place of someone living with AIDS and imagine people rejecting them," he said. But a trip to talk with residents of Fetteh, a village just down the road from the academy, proved slightly trickier. "The old people in particular did not want to listen. We went house to house. Some of them saw us coming and ran and hid," Abubakar recalled. "But we talked to others, who listened and enjoyed it, and then some of the ones that ran away actually came back." UNICEF estimates that the budding footballers at the Ghanaian academy have reached at least 6,000 people with their HIV awareness activities. "Using popular sports, such as football, easily draws the attention of people who might not otherwise be reached," said Caroline den Dulk, a spokeswoman for UNICEF in Ghana. "The footballers -- who are generally seen as being young, cool and successful -- are very committed to their tasks as peer educators and have no shyness in talking to their peers about sex and relationships," she added. The soccer academy is run and funded by Dutch football club Feyenoord, which is banking on some of the academy students hitting the big time and becoming future match-winners. AIDS campaigners are hoping for a similar future return – that when stardom comes, the player will lead by example and the HIV messages will reach an even bigger audience. And Abubakar, who dreams of playing for a European club, is happy to oblige. "It's one of the ways we can give something back to the community," the youngster said. "I'm pleased to do my bit to reduce the AIDS rate in Ghana."