Last week, GRS received a two year grant from the US State Department’s International Sports Programming Initiative (ISPI) to support Grassroot Soccer’s work in Malawi. Through the project, GRS will partner with UNICEF’s Sisters2Sisters initiative to provide girls aged 15-18 with intensive HIV prevention and life skills education. The program aims to increase knowledge and reduce stigma around HIV and AIDS, challenge gender roles, and encourage female empowerment and community mobilization around HIV prevention.
This groundbreaking initiative builds on Grassroot Soccer’s partnership with the Baylor College of Medicine’s Children’s Foundation and the Abbott Fund in Lilongwe, Malawi. Begun in 2008, this growing program has graduated over 1,500 children and tested over 2,000 youth and community members through home-based testing and record-breaking community testing tournaments.