The match outside the field – MSF HALFTIME!

Think of the global fight against HIV/AIDS as the deciding match during a global football tournament... The massive international response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic has reached the HALFTIME mark after a decade of impressive progress. More than 4 million people around the world are alive today thanks to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, but 9 million more are in urgent need of ARV access. Now, imagine the referee stopping the match halfway through... nobody calls it quits at HALFTIME!　So, why should the same happen in the life-saving HIV/AIDS response? While the FIFA 2010 World Cup is hosted in Africa for the first time ever, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) presents HALFTIME! – a 5-a-side football tournament in Johannesburg (July 2, 2010) bringing together people living with HIV and MSF staff from HIV treatment projects in the Southern African region, including South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. HALFTIME! is an international effort to raise awareness on the continued battle in funding the fight against HIV/AIDS, publicly calls on backtracking international donors to recommit to their pledges to keep funding ARV care. HALFTIME! will showcase determination and true grit of people on the frontlines to fight the pandemic, and demonstrate the positive impact of ARV treatment by scoring a goal for funded treatment against the disease that wipes out 2 million lives globally each year. JOIN US to ensure the deciding match against HIV/AIDS does not end at HALFTIME! Pik Kwan LEE, MSF Press Officer in South Africa

About World Cup feature World Cup feature is an internet blogging experience with first account stories of field workers and staff of  international humanitarian medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) conducted during the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, from June 7th to July 14th, 2010. The main objective of World Cup feature is to provide the worldwide audience an alternate view on the first FIFA World Cup in the African soil and to share positive chronicles of the Southern African region’s struggle to fight the dual epidemics of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. World Cup feature will include narrative, still pictures and short videos coming from countries where MSF field workers provide care to people suffering from HIV and tuberculosis, from Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and other places in the world. HALFTIME!, a one-day HIV positive patients soccer tournament organised by MSF in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 2nd, will also be featured. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the World Cup feature are those of the authors or the persons interviewed and can not be considered or quoted as MSF’s official position on the matters concerned.