The Power of Soccer

As promised, I’ve taken a break from watching the exciting World Cup matches to see what’s going on in the world of social marketing. There are a lot of interesting campaigns being launched, as well as some controversial protests that have been getting a significant amount of press attention. For now, however, I’ll focus on some of the positive events that have been taking place.

Grassroots Soccer is an organization established by former professional football players, that provides HIV information and education techniques to African soccer stars, coaches teachers and role models around the continent. The program provides these community leaders with the curriculums and skills necessary to pass along the information to youth. The organization has been a huge success and has received global recognition for its efforts against the HIV epidemic.

For the 2010 World Cup GRS has teamed up with Castrol to roll out the Castrol Skillz Holiday Programme that 4,500 children across South Africa will participate in. The initiative is a four week long holiday camp that provides HIV education, life skills and of course, intensive soccer training. It is particularly interesting to see how the program uses analogies and correlations between HIV transmission and the game of football to help educate the children about the disease and how to make decisions in life regarding their own protection and health.

For more information about this amazing organization, as well as the Castrol Skillz Holiday Program, check out www.grassrootsoccer.org/

Now back to the games!