The African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS -- a coalition of broadcasters from 35 African countries -- has had "several successes since its inception three years ago," which is "good news" in the fight against HIV, columnist Guy Berger writes in a Mail & Guardian opinion piece.

According to Berger, ABMP participants have agreed to an HIV prevention project that "capitali[zes] on young people's anticipated interest" in the 2010 World Cup, which will be held in South Africa. The project -- called Football for an HIV-Free Generation, or F4 -- will broadcast a World Cup-themed message about HIV testing to the large audience of young people interested in the event, Berger says. He adds that ABMP is an "encouraging sign of broadcasters taking seriously the need to jointly roll-out programming to tackle" HIV/AIDS in Africa, concluding that "[a]nyone concerned" about HIV/AIDS "should celebrate that." Berger adds that incorporating "HIV/AIDS messages into the core business practice of each of the 57 member broadcasters" is a "challenge given the denialism, passivity and bureaucracy afflicting many African broadcasters" (Berger, Mail & Guardian, 10/30). AMBP was formed at an October 2005 summit of African broadcasters organized by the broadcasters, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Foundation in an effort to reinvigorate the role of African broadcasters in combating HIV/AIDS (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 10/04/06).