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in a documentary, The Positive Ladies Soccer Trailer, sponsored by Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) Holland, a global, independent group for humanitarian medical aid.
The documentary, about women living with HIV and Aids who forged bonds and found solace after forming a football team, may not have elevated Phiri to the typical film star in the mould of the Hollywood icons. But it has certainly brought her considerable fame.
From an ordinary woman living in despair after she tested HIV-positive a few years ago, Phiri is now a celebrity in her own right in her Epworth neighbourhood.
She recalls how her world literally crumbled when she got her HIV test results.
To make it worse, when she turned to her landlady for support the landlady instead suggested that she kill herself.
But her life took a turn for the better when she and her colleagues formed a football team and called it ARV Swallows Football Club.
“The team has provided me with support and given me a place to talk about my problems and a platform to share problems,” says Phiri, who is captain of ARV Swallows.
“Even though we have the HIV virus, we are not Aids victims.”
One of Phiri’s team-mates, Meria Kabudura, who also features in the film, says she has to perform a juggling act – looking after an ailing husband, doing her household chores and attending training sessions for ARV Swallows.
“My husband is suffering from tuberculosis and needs daily injections over a period of two months at the local clinic,” she says.
“Because we don’t have a car, I have to push him in the wheelbarrow to the clinic so that he can get treatment.” She recalls how some residents from their neighbourhood would tease them when they formed ARV Swallows, with some even swearing the team would not last.
“They thought we were just playing games,” she says, “They would laugh at us and say, ‘How can women play football? Will you be good at it? How can you sick people play soccer?
“They would chide us, but we didn’t despair,” recalls Meria.
Another player, China, says she has since found the willpower to go on after she joined the team.
China, who is single after chasing her husband away on discovering that he was promiscuous, says she has no regrets.
The whole experience was demeaning. However, she feels very empowered with her new position in the football team and the moral support she continues to get from her teammates through the regular pep talks they conduct on and off the pitch.
“My position as the team striker has given me a sense of pride,” beams China.
The documentary produced by a Medecins sans Frontieres-Holland was premiered at the last edition of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival.
It transformed the women into local heroines.
In the documentary the women confront their situation with tenacity, determination and joy – often sharing their experiences with colleagues in the team.
They sing, dance and cheer despite their difficult circumstances.
The documentary focuses on four members of ARV Swallows chronicling an average day in their lives, including their visits to the clinic to receive treatment and to church as well as their experiences as members of the team.
Through the documentary, members of the team express themselves without fear of being stigmatised. The story of ARV Swallows, through the documentary, has inspired many women who are living with the virus, to destigmatise the disease through sport.
ARV Swallows’ success inspired other women living with HIV to form their own teams and groups under the umbrella of the Kujatana League.
Kujatana project director Chris Sambo says the main objective of the tournament is to demystify HIV and Aids through playing football, while giving people living with the virus a platform to release stress.
“We want to provide a forum to those that are infected to release stress through playing football and to give psychological assurance to the members of those infected that they are not about to die.
“We also want to encourage those that have not been tested to do so,” he said.
One in every four people in Zimbabwe is said to be living with HIV and Aids.