As 1 December is World Aids Day I wanted to do my bit by sharing details of HIVsport, a charity which works with the Premiership, the Professional Footballers Association and others to raise awareness of HIV/Aids in the UK.
Now that we no longer have the ‘doom and gloom’ messages that characterised HIV/Aids campaigns in the 1980s infection rates in the UK are increasing, and HIVsport’s current campaign is one that is trying to get important messages about sexual health across to young people. In recent weeks all of the 92 managers in the football league have been sent a HIVsport ‘Badge of Hope’ (which you can see on the left) and asked by the League Managers Association to wear the badge over the World AIDS Day period in order to show their support for the 33 million people living with HIV and AIDS across the world. Interestingly both Sir Alex Ferguson and Mark Hughes have been seen wearing the badge in recent post-match interviews. That’s great news for the HIVsport campaign and also seems to me to indicate that, at least in the boardroom, homophobia is not the problem that it once was in football. I suspect that the many managers who’ve been seen wearing the ‘Badge of Hope’ recently are much more enlightened than the likes of Max Clifford, who has been quoted as saying that he continues to advise Premiership players ‘not to come out’.
The HIVSport website is also a good resource for people who want ideas about how they can raise HIV/Aids awareness in their community, and of course they welcome donations to help them pursue their new projects – one of which is a series of documentaries (to be shown on TV next Spring) which will look at how young people, both here at home and over in South Africa, deal with HIV/Aids in their daily lives. Of course you can also follow the charity’s activities on Twitter.
December 2, 2011 at 8:40 am
These campaigns are so important and good for you for raising awareness! I remember coming to the UK in 1993 and being flabbergasted that December 1 was not recognised. Awareness has come a long way since then, all due to people's hard work.
December 2, 2011 at 10:40 am
The reason I mentioned them is because I know their finance director, who also happens to be a colleague here at the office. It's a really interesting awareness campaign, and they've met with incredible success so far…
December 2, 2011 at 10:53 am
I firmly believe that you cannot support every cause and every charity but you can change one mind. So bringing attention to this one cause is important.