Background: Lack of youth-friendly and affordable services, peer- and self-stigma, fear and low level of understanding of the benefits of both Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) and Medical Male Circumcision over traditional practices can pose significant barriers to effective HIV prevention for adolescents.
Description: Observations from a program in Kenya funded by a grant from PEPFAR as part of the DREAMS Innovation Challenge, managed by JSI, indicated the effectiveness of using weekly football sessions and regular football tournaments as tools for reaching, mobilizing, educating and providing adolescents with VCT and VMMC information and services. Football coaches trained as sexual health educators provided adolescents with a trusted source of information. The football team provided a natural support network for adolescents that can be lacking in a clinical setting. In January 2017 a cohort of forty community football coaches were trained to deliver innovative and interactive football drills, with VCT and VMMC sexual health messages built-in to the sessions. All learning and information unfolded through play, making education interactive and experiential. By linking with the Ministry of Health and local NGOs, free, confidential VCT and VMMC were provided at pitch side, taking services to where the young people were and removing significant barriers to access. In one year, 895 interactive football sessions with integrated sexual health messaging reached 1314 players; 859 of those attended more than 5 sessions. 1211 VCT services completed; 414 VMMC performed.
Lessons learned: Weekly football sessions and quarterly tournaments, where medical advice and clinical services are available for free to adolescents in a youth-friendly setting, are key ways to create demand and drive uptake of VCT and VMMC.
Conclusions/Next steps: The intervention will expand in year 2 to additionally reach the wider community, and not just those adolescents enrolled in the weekly football sessions. Tournaments and other outreach events proved successful in engaging older age groups and people who do not play football, but who took advantage of the free services offered in a friendly non-clinical setting in the heart of their communities.

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