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Forward Nyanyiwa in Kadoma
THE National Aids Council of Zimbabwe (NAC) has embarked on a drive to combat HIV and Aids by 2030 through sport in line with the country’s mission of “Leaving no one behind”.

Speaking at the official opening of a two-day workshop here attended mainly by sports journalists drawn from different media houses across the country, NAC monitoring and evaluation officer Mr Amon Mpofu said sport had the power to influence society on the dangers of the once deadly pandemic.

Mr Mpofu said sports journalists were role models with a large following and could help in mainstreaming the HIV/Aids story.

“As NAC we are conducting a workshop for mainly sports journalists from across different media houses, the purpose being to sensitise them on HIV and Aids issues.

“We realised that as Zimbabwe, most of our people follow sports so much and we want the journalists to spread the Aids messages. This is in line with the Government’s stance of not leaving anyone behind.

“The issue of ending Aids is calling for everyone to contribute with their comparative advantage. Sportswriters are role models to sports followers and if they mainstream HIV messages into sports this will go a long way in reaching the masses in Zimbabwe and it will help save lives in communities,” said Mr Mpofu.

Mr Mpofu also added that they were not only targeting sports followers but the journalists and sportspersons themselves and plans are underway to engage prominent athletes and two of the country’s biggest football clubs — Dynamos and Highlanders.

“We are also targeting the sportswriters themselves and their families. They are also affected and they also need the information. We will soon be engaging them and prominent sportspersons in our drive and plans are afoot to work with two of the country’s biggest football teams,” he added.

Director of Aids/TB Unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Owen Mugurungi, who is also part of the ongoing workshop, said the ministry fully supported this initiative as it came at a time some new infections were being reported, especially among the youths.

“If you want to look at it at a national scale, we are still having new infections in youths. The age groups ranging from 15 to 29 years are the most affected and they are the ones who follow sport.

“If we can have sports journalists spreading the HIV/Aids gospel in their stories then we will manage to reach a lot of people. We have done well and are still on course to reach the 90-90-90 targets as a nation. But this is a different case if you want to mirror the figures of these age groups, so we must reach to everyone,” said Dr Mugurungi.

Dr Mugurungi also added that the HIV story needed everyone’s support especially the sportspersons.

“We have seen fans ‘throwing’ themselves to football stars and other athletes and we hope these personalities will also add their voices in our drive to combat Aids and also to help themselves as we have witnessed a lot of their deaths over the years due to lack of information among other reasons.” he concluded.