‘Grassroot’ begins to grow at Princeton

Members of the men’s and women’s varsity soccer teams gathered Wednesday evening in Dillon Gym to learn more about Grassroot Soccer from Middlebury graduate Nick Colacchio. Before beginning medical school at Columbia, Colacchio played professional soccer in the Botswana Premier League, but his most worthwhile experience in the country was on the fields of local schools working as a field intern for Grassroot.

Colacchio showed several movies and series of photographs while highlighting his experiences, urging the Princeton players and other members of the audience to consider applying for the program because of the potential impact they could have.

“The reason [Grassroot Soccer] works is because…soccer is the sport,” Colacchio said. “The power of soccer in the world is like combining baseball, football, basketball, hockey, movies, music, everything and rolling it into one. That’s what soccer’s like in most countries in the world — it’s a tremendous resource.”

Founded in 2002 by four professional soccer players in Zimbabwe — one of whom is Ethan Zohn, the 2002 Survivor winner — Grassroot Soccer was originally started as an intervention program that sent professional players to under-resourced schools to educate children about the preventable and treatable disease AIDS.

During the past six years, Grassroot has expanded across the African continent and even has a program in the Dominican Republic. It now invites non-soccer-playing college students, recent graduates and teachers to get involved.

Field interns work for yearlong periods in schools primarily in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa. There, they teach children about HIV/AIDS through games, drama productions, poetry and art. Some presentations deal directly with the biology of the disease and impart knowledge that children can then relay to their communities.

“[Grassroot Soccer] understands the power of soccer and how we really have the potential to replace fear and death with hope and life through a simple mechanism of games and activities that really teaches children about HIV/AIDS and [encourages] them to go back and tell their friends and families the same potential life-saving information,” Colacchio said.

Soccer is, of course, the most enjoyable part for the students, and it allows the interns to bond with them outside of the educational part of the program.

Grassroot Soccer also supports a program in the United States called KickAIDS — Kids United in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS — that fundraises for it. Recently, the organization has attempted to increase its publicity as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa approaches.

By speaking through soccer, Grassroot Soccer has been successfully educating African children about HIV/AIDS. This knowledge is especially important for these children, considering three-fourths of the 40 million people infected with AIDS are African.