Ambassador's Speeches

Remarks for Launching of Zebras 4 Life Testing Campaign Gaborone
Ambassador Katherine Canavan

January 22, 2007

Welcome Minister of the new Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture Honorable Moeng Pheto, Lt. General Masire, members of the Zebras National Football Team, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen.

DUMELANG BO MMA LE BO RRA. 

Thank you for being with us here today at the Botswana Football Association offices in Gaborone for a very special announcement.  I am very pleased and honored to be here today to launch a new behavior change campaign in Botswana through the U.S. Ambassador’s HIV/AIDS Initiative.

The campaign is called Zebras 4 Life, Test 4 Life, and its aim is simple: To encourage the men, particularly, of Botswana to know their HIV status through voluntary testing.

As the members of the Zebras National Football Team know, it is teamwork the produces winning results.  The Zebras 4 Life Test 4 Life campaign follows this lesson as it is a team effort between the U.S. and Botswana to help this country meet its goal of an AIDS-free generation by 2016.  Our team is approaching this foe – HIV/AIDS – by utilizing the influence of Botswana’s best football players.

As we all know, football is incredibly popular in Botswana.  And the men who take the field in those blue, black and white striped jerseys are heroes to their adoring fans. We also know that these players are held to the highest standards while on the playing field, and to the tens of thousands of fans, they are nothing short of role models.

These players realize that their influence doesn’t stop when the game clock ends.  They are leaders off the field as much as they are on. It was in this light that a number of them have volunteered to become spokesmen for the Zebras For Life, Test For Life campaign.

In the coming year, stars from the Zebras national team will travel throughout the country with counselors from the Tebelopele Voluntary Counseling and Testing centers.  They will make appearances in rural areas and in towns, at different activities, schools and soccer matches, to demonstrate that there is no shame in going for an HIV test.  Because while there was once a time when a positive result gave little hope, today, the earlier you know, the faster you can get help.

The idea for the Zebras For Life, Test 4 Life campaign came from two U.S. Peace Corps volunteers who noted that the involvement of Batswana men, especially younger males, in the response to HIV/AIDS has been slow.
 
Why is it so important to target men?  For social, cultural and economic reasons, men are often considered to be in a stronger position in their relationships with women.  While times are changing and women are making strides in the public and private sectors, men are still key decision makers at home.  They are important in ensuring that their families go for HIV tests, or for encouraging their partners to join national programs such as PMTCT, the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission program.

Botswana has made great strides in Voluntary and Routine Counseling and Testing over the past few years.  Health care workers estimate that up to 35 percent of the 1.7 million people living in Botswana now know their HIV status – a percentage far greater than many other countries.  The numbers of people getting tested is increasing in part because residents are seeing the positive effects of Botswana’s anti-retroviral treatment program.

This is great news, but it also means that 65 percent of the population still DO NOT know their HIV status.  Men especially are underrepresented at the testing centers, and in turn, HIV-positive males are underrepresented in the country’s ARV program.  And health care workers say men are slow to accompany their partners in the PMTCT program.

It is vital that our community leaders – especially men – stand up and encourage others to be tested and play a positive role in HIV/AIDS prevention and care.  We need men to lead their families to the testing centers.  We have seen President Mogae do this when he voluntarily tested several years ago. And in 2004, Bakwena Paramount Chief Kgosi Kgari Sechele III and 30 of his tribal leaders took the HIV test at the request of Peace Corps volunteers to encourage men to know their status.

The Zebras players who have volunteered to take part in this campaign are being trained in Peer Education techniques that will allow them to openly discuss issues of stigma, discrimination, and denial that still surround HIV/AIDS and discourage so many people from seeking out their status.

In preparation for the launch of this campaign, several Zebras players made appearances at World AIDS Day commemorations around the country.  Results from those events have been promising:  In Kopong, where players Kagiso Tshelametsi, Dirang Moli and Modiri Marumo appeared on Nov. 17, more people tested on that day alone than in the entire past month in the village.

We are encouraged by this news and with the help from our other partners such as the government of Botswana, Orange, BOTUSA, Tebelopele, the BFA, Peace Corps, the BDF and the United States military, we have high hopes for the success of this initiative.

Funding for this initiative is expected to come, in part, from U.S. President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which is a $15 billion initiative to fight HIV/AIDS and TB around the world.  I met with President Bush on Dec. 19, and emphasized how important PEPFAR has been in supporting the Government of Botswana’s program to fight HIV/AIDS.  As an example, I talked about Zebras For Life, Test For Life and gave him the Zebras wristband I was wearing.  I also let him know that the Zebras initiative was the idea of some Peace Corps volunteers and that PCVs are helping implement the program along with other U.S. and Botswana agencies.  He was very pleased to hear about the program and wished us every success.

The little blue wristband I gave to President Bush I like to refer to as “awareness wristbands.”  At those events where Zebras players are promoting the campaign, anyone who gets an HIV test with Tebelopele will receive one which reads “Zebras 4 Life, Test 4 Life.”  People who wear them can proudly show the world that they have been tested. It is a symbol of solidarity and empowerment.  Those who wear these bands are raising HIV/AIDS awareness.  I encourage you to be tested yourselves and tell people what the wristband means to you.  It shows you are making a commitment to life. 

And that’s what this campaign is about – a commitment to life.  Let’s get tested today and make a commitment to the future.  Let’s also not forget that the next World Cup in South Africa is just around the corner in 2010. I challenge all of us who love the game to make a commitment to staying healthy and sticking around to watch this historical event. 

Thank you for coming.
KE A LE- BO- GA BO MMA LE BO RRA