Grassroot Soccer (GRS) uses the power and popularity of soccer to empower youth and mobilize communities in the fight against AIDS in Africa. GRS strives to reduce stigma, fuel open dialogue about HIV/AIDS, and prevent new HIV infections. GRS does this by arming at-risk adolescents the knowledge, social support, and life-skills they need to live HIV-free. Since 2003, GRS has graduated over 200,000 youth from its innovative HIV prevention and life skills curriculum in 11 African countries.

Using the power and popularity of soccer in the fight against AIDS, Grassroot Soccer provides African youth with the knowledge, life skills, and support to live HIV-free.

Experts project that between 2008 and 2015, sixty million new HIV infections will occur worldwide. Forty million will occur in sub-Saharan Africa and twenty-four million will occur among young people age 15-24. In three of GRS's locations (Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa), 600,000 people died of AIDS in 2005, nearly three million children live as AIDS orphans, and roughly one in five adults is infected with the virus. Today, nearly one half of all new HIV infections occur among youth aged 15-24. Many young Africans lack the knowledge and skills necessary to make responsible decisions that could save their lives.

GRS trains educators (coaches, teachers, aid workers, professional soccer players, etc.) to deliver an innovative, sports-based curriculum that empowers youth with the knowledge, social support, and life skills they need to live HIV-free. Consisting of 16 sessions, including games, dramas, and other dynamic activities, the curriculum encourages open discussion on decision-making, stigma, and risk reduction.

In Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Africa, GRS directly delivers the curriculum in public schools. In many other African countries - including Botswana Sudan, Liberia, Ethiopia, Namibia, and Lesotho - GRS partners with governments and NGOs to start successful programs by providing technical assistance through training, curriculum and project design, and systems for monitoring and evaluation. Some current partners include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in South Africa, Mercy Corps in Liberia/Sudan, and the International Organization of Migration in Botswana.

Tommy Clark, M.D. - Founder, CEO
Kirk Friedrich - Co-Founder, Managing Director
Methembe "Mayor" Ndlovu - Co-Founder, Zimbabwe Country Director
Ethan Zohn - Co-Founder, Board member
Bill Miles - COO

Kevin Borgmann (Secretary), Capital One
Anne Marie Burgoyne (Chair), Director, Draper Richards Foundation
Thomas S. Clark, M.D., CEO and Founder, Grassroot Soccer
Tom Crotty (Vice Chair), General Partner, Battery Ventures
Ted Henderson, Managing Director, Schooner Capital
Jason Hix (Treasurer), Shareholder, Reynolds, Hix & Co
Gregg Lemkau, Chief Operating Officer, Investment Banking, Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Giuseppe Raviola, M.D., Fellow, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
Matt Rightmire, Managing Director, Borealis Ventures
Andrew Shue, Film Producer
Mary G. Turco, Director, Center for Continued Education in the Health Sciences and Continuing Medical Education, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
Ethan Zohn, TV Announcer, Winner, Survivor Africa

Robert Billheimer, Movie Producer (A Closer Walk)
Bobby Clark, Notre Dame University
David Clem, Lyme Properties
Ophelia Dahl, Partners in Health
Christian Eidem, Chairman and Founder of Asante Oil, Norway/London, England
Brad Feldman, New England Revolution
Robert Henderson, Greylock Partners
Phillip Jackson, President & CEO, SecureRAD LLC
Alex Kahan, Nomad Communications
Ted Leland, University of the Pacific
Azure Tariro Makadzange, M.D., Harvard University and Harare, Zimbabwe
Nancy S. Padian, Ph.D., University of California San Francisco Global Health Sciences
Gordon Russell, Sequoia Capital
Joyce Sackey Acheampong, M.D., Harvard University
Kath Salmanowitz, Harvard Business School, Community Partners
William Wiese, M.D., MPH, Professor, Director Institute for Public Health, School of Medicine University of New Mexico

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Draper Richards Foundation
W.K Kellogg Foundation
Kalusha Bwalya Foundation (Zambia)
Africa Directions (Zambia)
Barclays Bank (Zambia)
De Beers

GRS combines the power of soccer with innovative educational activities, empowering a youth-led movement for a 100% stigma-free Africa and no new HIV infections. Our curriculum has been proven effective in numerous independent evaluations, significantly improving adolescents' HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of social support. In 2004, Stanford University's Children's Health Council concluded:

"Overall, the Grassroot Soccer Program is a culturally appropriate, internationally suitable,creative, and effective way to educate at-risk youth about HIV/AIDS and its prevention."

GRS has developed a model and methodology that is effective, replicable, and scalable. The greatest contribution that we make is providing HIV prevention training for existing agencies/organizations, while facilitating the design and management process. We plan to continue to expand our program by linking with like-minded organizations with capacity to help the project reach scale and remain sustainable. We anticipate that this will involve a combination of government agencies (particularly, Ministries of Education), community based organizations, corporate partners, and large NGOs.

GRS has already proven its ability to do this effectively. The next step for GRS as an organization is to build its infrastructure, maximizing our capacity to continue to provide quality services at a larger scale, evaluate our interventions’ effectiveness, and develop innovative ways to use football as a tool for fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

- Winner of Ashoka/Nike Changemakers Collaborative Competition: Sports for a Better World (382 entrants)

- Voted February 2008 MySpace Impact Award for Health and Safety