Alive & Kicking Zambia’s Roadshow is travelling across the Copperbelt province providing football coaching and HIV/AIDS education for young people. The Roadshow will leave a lasting legacy through the training of local coaches, the provision of HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counselling and Testing, and the distribution of 800 leather balls to schools across the region.

This is the first Roadshow of its kind for A&K Zambia and it has been developed on the model that has been so successful for Alive & Kicking Kenya. The Roadshow team will spend a week in four towns in the Copperbelt providing coaching training for local coaches and HIV/AIDS awareness football sessions in the community. Each week will culminate in a football and netball tournament that will see 16 teams compete for Alive & Kicking Roadshow trophies. At each tournament, mobile Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres will be set up at the side of the pitch, and all participants and spectators will be encouraged to get tested to find out their HIV status.

The coaching drills practiced during the Roadshow will be given by Tackle Africa’s Ben Sadler and will teach the participants how HIV is contracted, how it can be avoided, how to get tested, and what to do when you know your status.

The four locations for the tournaments will be Chililabombwe, Kitwe, Mufulira and Ndola. At each location Alive & Kicking is being supported by a local partner who has helped to organise schools, coaches, referees and pitches. The four partners are Malalo Sports Academy, Sky Sports Academy, the Mufulira College of Education and International HIV/AIDS Alliance. All four partners are experienced in giving life skills education to young people through sports.

The impact of the Roadshow will be monitored through questionnaires given to the participants, case studies of the local coaches, and information gained from the testing centres as to how many people find out their status.

Watch this space and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for regular updates on the progress of Alive & Kicking Zambia’s Inaugural Roadshow.