Afro Global amplifies TB/HIV awareness through football

Afro Global Alliance Ghana and other partners - Aurum Institute and Ghana Health Service, have held the third edition of an ongoing Tuberculosis (TB) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Awareness campaign using football as a medium to get to communities.

The third edition was held under the theme; “It is time to end TB,” at the Mandela Park in Osu with One Stop FC emerging as winners of the four-team tournament.

One Stop defeated Agblanshie FC 2-0 to lift the coveted trophy, and booked their place in the grand final which will involve all the winners in various communities.

Scores of people who turned up were entertained and got screened for free for TB and HIV. The spectators were also sensitised on the need to get tested for the diseases and find early treatment if necessary.

Chief Austin Arinze Obiefuna, Executive Director of Afro Global Alliance Ghana told the GNA Sports in an interview that, the tournament was part of their yearly World TB activities and TB intervention.

He said football was a popular sport in Ghana and so found the need to leverage on it to create awareness for TB and HIV.

He observed that the third edition had been successful just like the initial ones.

“For me, I think it’s a success looking at the turnout of people around and it’s not about football. It’s about what’s behind the football which is health awareness. The campaign is about bringing the services to the people and letting the people get tested to know their status on TB and HIV as well,” he said.

Chief Austin said their focus on the campaign for this year was the urban slums because TB was mostly found in congested areas.

“We have screen over 2000 people and I can tell we are very impressed with what we have witnessed. I can tell you in terms of awareness, education is really going well in the community and the media to are helping us to disseminate the information.”

“We have had complete success in the last two. We had quite a lot of people screened and we have cases which are already on treatment and the public sector is already happy about it. They have called us on board to be able to expand this activity to other regions as well.”

He said the tournament would continue in three more communities to continue with the awareness creation.