A total of 22 participants are currently attending a three-day conference about AIDS prevention organized by the Rwanda National Olympic and Sports Committee (RNOSC) in partnership with Churches United Against HIV & AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa (CUAHA) at Centre d’accuiel St Francois D’Assise in Kigali.
Under the theme ‘Together for AIDS prevention’, the conference is aimed at training sports leaders like administrators, coaches and captains and equipping them with knowledge about the preventive measures of HIV/AIDS.
“It is very important that we teach sportsmen and women about the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Athletes are usually stars in the community who have a lot of money at their exposure and because of this, it gets to their heads and makes them vulnerable. They can easily get involved in the misuse of alcohol, drugs and sex which is bad for them because this can lead to bacterial infections of the deadly virus,” explained Phophina Gashugi, the RNOSC first vice president.
Participants from boxing, fencing, kung-fu, paralympics, rugby, swimming and table tennis make up the list of federations represented at the second session of the CUAHA event.
One of the participants Yves Ndizeye, the technical director of the Rwanda Table Tennis Federation said, “This is very important because it relates sports and HIV/AIDS in particular, how it affects sportsmen. The program also teaches us about God’s word and the use of condoms as the main tools to use to fight against HIV/AIDS.”
The first training was held from April 15-17 with 10 sports federations and associations represented including archery, athletics, cricket, football, handball, karate, physical educators, taekwondo, triathlon and volleyball.