�Youth Games present HIV/AIDS advocacy opportunity�

Gothataone Moeng | Friday May 30, 2014 15:54

 

At a recent Botswana Family Welfare Association (BOFWA) event, Sam Ntelamo, Resident Representative of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Liaison Office to the African Union Commission, said the games are an opportune time to engage sportsmen and women to join in the campaign for increased access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV/AIDS services.

Ntelamo said while progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, it could be defeated by the fragmentation and duplication of services caused by the separate tackling of HIV/AIDS and the SRHR.

“While we have made important progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, it is not yet time to sit on our laurels; HIV & AIDS is a component of Sexual Reproductive Health, yet we have often times addressed it separately with parallel funding, and in separate facilities.

“We have therefore halved the outcomes that we would otherwise have achieved,” he said. Ntelamo said as IFFP they have been working for the integration of SHRH and HIV/AIDS, but would now go further to facilitate the intergration of the two with sports.

“The benefit of integrating sports in SRHR and HIV & AIDS into sport is two-fold: first, the advocacy messages including the actual services can be tailor-made to reach the sportswomen and men; and secondly, the sportswomen and men as role models have propensity to influence masses when they play the advocacy role to entice society to access services,” he said.

Ntelamo added: “The big question is, how do we sustain the integration of SRHR and HIV & AIDS into sports beyond Gaborone 2014 and more importantly how would we meaningfully engage the sportsmen and women in this agenda?”

He said that it is a fact that both sports and sexual relations transcend territorial boundaries, as they both do not know ethnic, cultural, religious and age restrictions.

“Equally both sports and sex bring along levels of emotions that at times defeat rational thinking,” he said.

He said the games provided a platform and opportunity to publicise the work that SHRH advocacy groups do and to engage the sportswomen and men to sell advocacy messages on reproductive health, family planning and HIV/AIDS.

Giving remarks at the event, Bobby Gaseitsiwe, Botswana National Sports Council Sports Development Manager, said SRH rights are important for athletes.

He said the health, including the sexual reproductive health, of the athlete is what ensures they perform at optimal level.

Gaseitsiwe said it was unfortunate that sports administrators tend not to see the connection between sports and SRHR, and urged BOFWA to engage with sports structures to disseminate information on their services.