All matches were contested competitively but fairly, with good sportsmanship all round. The teams had their direct beneficiaries playing for them, including members of the LGBT community, active drug users and young people living with HIV.
The VCT services were again run by Icebreakers Uganda (IBU). 110 people received counseling and 105 people were tested. 9 HIV positives were found and referred for treatment, 49 people tested positive for STIs and 10 for opportunistic infections. 24 of the people tested were a number of the counselors. IBU also brought 2,000 condoms and 800 lubricants for distribution.
The VCT team were overwhelmed by players and community members who wanted to receive services and so unfortunately ran out of HIV kits by the afternoon. Nevertheless, this shows how much community members appreciate Tackle Africa’s approach of combining mobile services with the friendly and accessible environment that a football tournament brings.
Tackle Africa also partnered with the Uganda Blood Transfusion service (UBTS) to enable a blood collection team to attend the tournament. UBTS liked the tournament settings, along with the provision of VCT services and PA system for mobilization, and were pleased with their yield of 28 units of blood.
We hope to have further tournaments in Kampala and other neighboring districts in the year 2019, switching venues each time so that different communities are reached.
