Whose goal, exactly, is this campaign protecting? UNAIDS' Three Ones goal?

Is there any evidence that football based awareness raising decreases discrimination or increases testing of people at risk? Wouldn't this money be better spent on treatment if that is the priority?

Jamie

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‘Protect the Goal’ campaign kicks off in Myanmar
UNAIDS
28 March, 2014

On 26 March, the Myanmar National League, the Myanmar Football Federation, national football heroes and UNAIDS call for HIV prevention among young people and football fans

The Myanmar National League, the Myanmar Football Federation, UNAIDS, the Asian Football Confederation, Asian Development Bank and Football United kicked off the ¨Protect the Goal¨ campaign—an HIV prevention programme for Myanmar. Mr Eamonn Murphy, Country Director UNAIDS Myanmar said ¨the programme will publically address stigma against HIV and focus on using the power of football to prevent HIV involving young people, football players, coaches and football fans¨.

“With key messages such as ‘Protect yourself from HIV’. ‘Commit to HIV testing’ and ‘Our goal is zero discrimination toward people living with HIV’, the football players Mr Kyaw Ko Ko and Ms Than Than from the Myanmar men’s and women’s national teams are participating in the campaign as part of their social responsibility activities and the Myanmar Football Federation’s commitment to the programme¨ said U Zaw Zaw, president of Myanmar Football Federation.

The programme in Myanmar is part of an initiative between UNAIDS, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to work together on a football-based HIV prevention programme that will help address HIV transmission among young people in five countries in South East Asia. (Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand). Current activities are particularly focused on raising HIV awareness among young people as a lead up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil where there will be an event profiling the global UNAIDS-led “Protect the Goal¨ campaign in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in June 2014.

In Myanmar, the Protect the Goal Campaign aims to contribute to greater progress in reducing new HIV infections among youth people. Using football stars and popularity of football, the Campaign will promote the importance of voluntary HIV testing, and the elimination of stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV, in line with the National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS of the Ministry of Health. According to Mr. Murphy, “There is urgent need to scale-up HIV prevention and treatment services. Despite the decline in HIV prevalence since 2007, there are still nearly 200,000 people living with HIV in the country, with around 7,000 new infections annually.”

Further activities and key HIV messages will be developed through expanded partnership with the National AIDS Programme of the Ministry of Health, the Myanmar Red Cross, and other organizations committed to the HIV response. The programme will implemented jointly by UNAIDS, the Myanmar National League and Football United® (FUn), a flagship program of School of Public Health and Community Medicine at University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Football United is currently implementing similar programmes for the communities in Mawlamyine and Yangon in collaboration with Myanmar Red Cross Society, Dagon University, East Yangon University and Mawlamyine University. Dr. Tun Aung Shwe, Programme Director of Football United said ¨Football is more than a sport, its magic power changes people´s lives and is one of the best vehicle to bring HIV prevention messages to people in Myanmar¨.

Contact information:
Jeysing Muthiah, CEO Myanmar National League, jeysingmff@gmail.com
Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS Country Director Myanmar, murphye@unaids.org

MFF/MNL. The Myanmar Football Federation (MFF) is the governing body of football in Myanmar. The MFF oversees the Myanmar National League (MNL), Myanmar men’s national team, the women’s national team, and youth national teams as well as national football championships and professional club competitions in accordance with FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) statutes

UNAIDS. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners to maximize results for the AIDS response. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

©UNAIDS

http://unaids-ap.org/2014/03/28/protect-the-goal-campaign-kicks-off-in-myanmar/