Break the Silence: Talk About AIDS

Background

"The Break the Silence: Talk about AIDS Campaign was designed to deliver highly motivating HIV/AIDS prevention messages to encourage men to talk about AIDS and to develop personal game plans to prevent it. The campaign was launched under the Caring and Understanding Partners (CUP) Initiative, which was first proposed at the Africa Regional Conference on Men’s Participation in Reproductive Health in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1996.

The CUP Initiative is a strategy to engage and promote men as partners in family and reproductive health issues through sports. It has been endorsed by 175 policy-makers and program managers from 31 African nations at the Harare conference and the First Conference of French-Speaking African Countries on Men’s Participation in Reproductive Health in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1998. It has since grown into a continent-wide reproductive health and sports initiative that has conducted interventions in eight countries and involved major international and national donors, NGOs, and private-sector businesses.

Various combinations of community outreach, print and broadcast media, and interpersonal communication approaches are used to reach men with messages that are tailored to influence their behavior and subsequently affect their health and that of their families. This particular CUP Initiative campaign, Break the Silence: Talk about AIDS, was held during the Confederation of East and Central African Football Association’s (CECAFA) Under-20 Youth Football Tournament because of the opportunities it provided to:

• use an innovative approach to reach large numbers of young men with AIDS prevention interventions,
• bring one-on-one counseling services closer to young men who do not frequent health facilities,
• decrease the stigma surrounding the disease by providing national leaders and health personnel with credible information and enabling them to speak out about the AIDS crisis, and
• launch a prototype health promotion campaign that could subsequently be implemented through football (soccer) tournaments in countries throughout Africa.”

Evaluation

The research for this campaign consisted of a baseline knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) survey conducted with the players of each team before health educational materials were delivered to them. The impact of the campaign was measured through more than 750 exit interviews with players and fans that were conducted by selected students from the Kenya Medical College.

The following are some conclusion drawn from the campaign evaluation:

"There is no doubt that the use of football to promote HIV/AIDS in the East and Central African region is an effective and timely strategy. Accomplishing the goal and objectives of the Break the Silence campaign was challenging for many reasons. Adequate structures and resources had to be put in place. This was the first time health education was being integrated into a sports tournament in the region, so collaborating organisations had to forge partnerships. The mobilisation of resources and management of finances were complicated because there were dual priorities: the AIDS Awareness Campaign and the football tournament. Coordinating communication, transportation, accommodations and funding for the participating country delegations proved difficult at many levels.

Nonetheless, the goal and objectives were achieved despite some unforeseen shortcomings in the implementation of the campaign activities. For the first time in the history of the East and Central African region, football was being played with the purpose of advocating HIV/AIDS prevention. The campaign has caused young people, policy-makers and opinion leaders to realize that it is only through discussing HIV/AIDS that they will devise a solution to internalize new behaviors and live healthy lives. Of importance, young football players have been trained as role models in AIDS prevention, to talk about AIDS with their teammates and others and advocate how to prevent the deadly disease.

The effect of the campaign went beyond the teams and fans in the stadium; it reached into the community. The educational video shown in the neighborhoods, increased visits to health clinics and distribution of AIDS prevention materials testify to the achievements made during the campaign. The AIDS information hotlines proved successful, especially in a society where few sources of information exist on reproductive and sexual guidance for youth and where there is great reluctance among parents to talk with their children about AIDS prevention. The campaign not only succeeded in breaking the silence and creating an awareness of the AIDS crisis, it also provided health information sources for young people and their parents.

The one-minute silences observed during the matches called attention to the need for young people, especially men, to be caring and understanding partners, and to act to prevent the spread of AIDS. The silences convinced many that talking about AIDS is the way forward, not only in Kenya but in the entire East and Central African region.

Strong evidence of the positive impact made by the campaign can be found in the resolutions made by country delegations that attended the CECAFA Youth Tournament. The Break the Silence: Talk About AIDS campaign contributed to changes in policy for youth. After the tournament, President Moi called upon the nation of Kenya to awaken to the reality of its devastation from AIDS and gave directives for AIDS education to be immediately taught in all schools. Kenya’s Minister of Education has endorsed the distribution to all schools of materials developed by the CECAFA Youth Tournament and AIDS Awareness Campaign. KBC television has also taken upon itself to continue featuring the TV spot produced during the tournament. The silence has been broken."