ICC celebrates fifth anniversary of HIV/AIDS partnership

[Guest guest]

ICC celebrates fifth anniversary of HIV/AIDS partnership

Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) will celebrate five years of

raising awareness and reducing the stigma of HIV by running a series of

activities to mark World AIDS Day on December 1.

Players taking part in major international matches will wear red ribbons, as a

global show of support for people living with HIV, while the India and England

teams will meet young people affected by HIV ahead of the seventh ODI in Delhi,

an ICC statement said.

Since 2003, when it became the first international sports organisation to form a

partnership with UNAIDS, the ICC has also worked with United Nations agencies

and non-governmental organisations including UNICEF and the Global Media AIDS

Initiative (GMAI), to deliver a variety of activities aimed at raising awareness

of HIV/AIDS.

Highlights of the partnership have included such profile-raising initiatives as

running public service announcements featuring some of the world’s leading

players including Graeme , Kumar Sangakkara and Mahendra Singh Dhoni;

player visits to schools and orphanages at ICC events; and an HIV-positive

individual tossing the coin before the start of the Pakistan-India Test series

in Rawalpindi in 2004.

Such was the level of support in 2007 at the ICC Cricket World Cup in the West

Indies and ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, 24 separate player visits to

community projects took place, illustrating the enormous player support that the

ICC’s partnership on HIV/AIDS receives.

The UNAIDS-ICC partnership is a good example of promoting social responsibility

through sport, said Michel Sidibe, deputy executive director of UNAIDS.

The game of cricket and its players have helped to raise awareness about HIV

among young people and to break down barriers of stigma in many countries, he

said.

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: The ICC is proud of the contribution

that cricket has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the past five years. We

were the first international sports organisation to form a partnership with

UNAIDS and by working with it and other excellent partners such as UNICEF and

the GMAI we believe that we have led the way for sporting communities to make a

difference on HIV/AIDS.

Women and children must be at the centre of the global response to AIDS, said

Ann M Veneman, executive director of UNICEF.

UNICEF and the International Cricket Council are uniting cricket fans, teams,

players and sponsors to focus on the impact of HIV and AIDS on vulnerable

populations.â€

Tina Hoff, vice-president and director of entertainment media partnerships at

the Kaiser Family Foundation, which houses the GMAI Secretariat, said: Through

the Global Media AIDS Initiatives partnership with ICC, broadcasters around the

world have been able to leverage the popular appeal of cricket to inform

audiences about AIDS and fight HIV-related stigma.

Media companies in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia have aired special

cricket-themed public service ads, covered player visits to HIV/AIDS clinics and

service organisations, and included special HIV/AIDS announcements during

cricket matches – all in an effort to help motivate their audiences to take

action in response to this global pandemic,†she added.

The ICC’s HIV/AIDS partnership with UNAIDS, UNICEF and the Global Media AIDS

Initiative will be a focal part of the ICC’s centenary celebrations in 2009.

Further details on these activities and how HIV/AIDS-awareness activities will

be delivered at the ICC World Twenty20 2009 and the ICC Champions Trophy 2009

will be announced in due course.

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