Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Positive Ladies Soccer Club

ARV SWALLOWS

To test HIV positive in an African country means...

...to be banished
...to be discriminated against
...to be abandoned by your husband
...to be beaten and blamed as if you did something wrong

... 'it is the equivalent to being given the death sentence.'

The film, The Positive Ladies Soccer Club, follows the development of a ladies soccer team in Zimbabwe.  Fourteen women, with the help of a male coach, ban together to form a soccer team to fight discrimination.  AIDS is not a commonly understood disease and there are a number of misconceptions that are made about those who are HIV positive.  You cannot catch AIDS.  The disease can only be transmitted through bodily fluids.  You are not at risk of contracting the disease by simply talking to someone who is HIV positive.  Unfortunately, this is not understood by citizens of developing countries, so they turn there backs on those who have the disease.  The women in the film joined the soccer team because they were in need of support.  Abandoned by loved ones, they had no one to turn to.  AIDS is a scary disease and the soccer team gave the women a support group to help each other through this scary time.  They entered the HIV Women's League as the underdogs and brought home the trophy at the end of the season.  "Before people laughed and scoffed at us, and now people follow us where ever we go," said Annafields, captain.  

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