Nedy Munyenyembe. Children’s AIDS Fund uses sports activities to introduce World Relief’s Choose Life A and B messages to Youth.

When Nedy Munyenyembe was 21 years old he heard of a new project in Zambia, known as ABY (abstinence and be faithful for youth) from Helping Hands Africa (HHA), a local NGO. Intrigued, Nedy attended an introductory session. Before the opening comments were over Nedy knew that he wanted to be part of the solution to the daunting toll HIV/AIDS was taking on the lives of young Zambians. He thought: “I’m young, I abstained from sex until I married, I’m faithful to my wife, I can help other youth make the same choices”.

Nedy volunteered to train with HHA as a Peer Facilitator, quickly rising to the level of Trainer of Trainers. Together with 40 other TOTs, Nedy trained 750 facilitators whose outreach exceeded 38,000 over 10 months.

Nedy believes ABY is effective “big time”. It used to be our parents sat around a camp fire and discussed issues of disease, marriage, relationships with their children. Youth now have …access to … negative information … ABY creates a platform for youths to stand and ask questions burning inside. [It] recreates the old campfires”.

Capitalizing on youth’s love of sports, Nedy and other facilitators began organizing open soccer matches after which they explained the AB messages followed by invitations to enroll in the ABY outreach activities.

A main constraint was purchasing good quality soccer balls. Through Nedy’s and HHA’s initiative, CAF secured funds from Reach to Teach, an American NGO which provided dozens of soccer balls. The ripple effect of the open soccer match initiative has enabled HHA to reach youth with the ABY message and to create a non-threatening platform for healthy dialogue.