Soccer players in the program will receive training in HIV/AIDS prevention, health, and agriculture. Players who complete training are given farming opportunities and awarded scholarships to pay for school fees and meals.
The Oyugis region has the highest HIV infection rate in Kenya. Society Empowerment Project works with boys and girls, mostly orphaned by HIV/AIDS, who can't afford basic education and daily meals. Using football/soccer to engage youth, SEP provides life skills, leadership and agricultural training. It works closely with AIDS treatment groups and local schools to provide health education. SEP improves the livelihoods by assisting families in small-scale agriculture. Profits pay school fees.
The SEP provides: daily health and nutrition trainings at partner schools; central training on weekends and during school holidays; annual soccer camp and tournament; agricultural training; workshops on female empowerment and family planning; an emphasis in all programs on inclusion of women and girls; coordination with Unicef's Water and Sanitation Hygene (WASH) program; lifeskills games adapted from Coaches Across Continents; Premier Skills Program organized through the English Premier League
The SEP reaches 1000 youth, including 800 girls who will participate weekly in 2012. Including family members, over 8000 people's lives will be improved by the program. Older youths become trainers themselves, taking responsibility for community development. School fees and agricultural programs provide increased food production in the region and a more educated population in the next generation, in addition to a reduction of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
