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afternoon.
This will be the first of the preliminary matches that will be held in the country’s 10 provinces until November.
Winning teams in each province will then battle it out in a provincial tournament set for late this year.
Project director Chris Sambo said they intend to hold a regional event early next year as part of efforts to encourage HIV positive people to participate in sport and to fight the stigma associated with the condition.
“Basically this is a preliminary game. We intend to have a provincial tournament featuring all the 10 provinces.
“We will have competitions in each province and the winners will then compete in the provincial tournament.
“What we want is to have a regional tournament featuring winners from the Sadc countries.
“We hope to demystify HIV and AIDS through playing football by those who are HIV positive,” said Sambo.
Sambo said the competition will also act as a platform for infected people 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 that are infected that they are not about to die.
“People have a wrong perception that someone who is HIV positive is about to die.
“We also want to encourage those that have not been tested to get tested,” said Sambo.
The project director said they hope most of the Sadc countries would have come up with their teams early next year.
“We intend to conclude the programme in Matabeleland North in November and have the regional competition in January because by then we hope those countries would have put in place national teams of women who are HIV positive.
“The regional tournament will feature South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zambia,” said Sambo.
The tournament is being sponsored by Twalumba Holdings and will be graced by the company’s chief operations officer, Miriam Sibanda.