NawaLife Trust (NLT) put Namibia on the map at the prestigious annual AfriComNet Awards ceremony held in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 12.
The organisation walked off with first prize for its innovative and pulsating street soccer initiative, NawaSport in the category: ‘Best interpersonal/community-based communication strategy, campaign or tool’.
In Namibia, the NawaSport tournaments have grown into great crowd-pullers and crowd-pleasers; providing healthy, alcohol-free entertainment every time. Thousands pack into the venues to watch quality local soccer and to receive important health information and in many cases, free outreach HIV-testing on site. At the recent Walvisbay Tourney last Saturday, the majority of testers were men with an astounding 79 per cent.
NLT was one of dozens of organisations throughout Africa that entered the awards race. The AfriComNet Awards events also make provision for participating country nominees to share their work and experiences ahead of the glittering final.
NLT is a Namibian non-governmental organisation that specialises in HIV prevention communication. It develops and implements tools, programmes and multi-media campaigns to promote positive health behaviours. NLT is fully funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
AfriComNet – the African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development – hosts the Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Communication in Africa annually.
AfriComNet is an association of HIV and AIDS, health and development communication. Formerly known as the Regional HIV and AIDS Behaviour Change Communication Network (BCC Network), AfriComNet was established in October 2001 in recognition of the severity of the continent’s HIV and AIDS pandemic and the need for high-quality strategic communication to respond to the crisis. Visit www.africomnet.org for more info.