What a small world! I travel half way across the planet, and get introduced to a very passionate man who is one of the founders of Kick 4 Life Project in Lesotho….and find that our paths have crossed on a previous occasion at Southampton Football Club 10 years ago. Not only that, but I also find out that his wife, who was also working on the project, comes from the same home town as me! They must breed passionate people on the south coast, as that’s exactly the feeling I got from Peter Fleming about the Kick 4 life Project!
The project was founded in 2005 by brothers Peter and Steve Fleming and they have since focused their efforts in Lesotho in southern Africa. The K4L project delivers a range of program’s focused on tackling HIV by providing sports-based health education, voluntary testing, life-skills development and support into education and employment. With Lesotho having the third highest HIV prevalence in the world and where hundreds of thousands of children have been orphaned by the disease, K4L is stepping up to the plate and linking sport, interaction and education.
After spending the time with Peter, it became apparent to me that this was a project that could literately change lives through education and awareness. High profile names such as Fabio Capello, David Beckham and Prince Harry have all stepped forward to show their support and involved themselves in more than just observing, with all of them taking an active role to promote the project. Peter and his colleagues took me through the specially designed curriculum that encompassed key messages that would education people about the stigma of HIV, the risks associated with HIV and abstinence whilst also building in other valuable life messages such as social skills, handling peer pressure, decision making & consequences and basic social values. It is a curriculum that really opened my eyes as to how sport and interaction can be used to deliver a simple message, but with maximum impact.
To put the project into perspective, take a look over the follow facts:
Through the project, more than 6,000 have been tested for HIV so far and more than 250 have been referred to live saving treatment. 98.5% of those found to be HIV+ at K4L are now on ARV treatment or receiving relevant health care. The K4L project has a gender involvement ratio of 51% men to 49% women.
Facts that I found inspiring in the fight against HIV and AIDS and facts that made me realise that sport can be used in more ways than we care to imagine and can truly have the potential to save lives. Peter and his brother Steve (who I hope to set up a meeting with on my return to the UK) have showed me that a simple idea can be embraced by the smallest of countries, the biggest of stars, the youngest people and be successful, meaningful and impact on some of the worlds most disadvantaged people.
Many thanks to Peter for his time and thanks to Meg (you know who you are) for setting up the opportunity for me.For more information visit - www.kick4life.org
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