African Health Cup 2017

The Multicultural AIDS Coalition (MAC) is a non-profit organization launched in 1989.  Its mission is to mobilize communities of color to end the HIV epidemic. Formed in 2000, AFIA is the first program in Massachusetts to specifically focus on HIV/AIDS in African immigrant and refugee communities.

The African Health Cup is an annual soccer tournament and one of the organization’s most successful social initiatives in recent years.  It is planned and organized under the AFIA program, in collaboration with African community leaders from across Massachusetts.  Each year, a planning committee meets from February to June to organize for the production of the tournament, which brings together African immigrant and refugee communities in Massachusetts to address common social and health challenges through a popular cultural activity – soccer.

While the goal of this event is to create social cohesion, the African Health Cup also seeks to achieve the following programmatic goals:

• Increase awareness in HIV prevention, screening, care and research
• Promote HIV testing and access to health services
• Reduce HIV stigma by situating HIV testing and prevention education within the realm of general health promotion activities, including blood pressure screening, blood glucose screening, and cholesterol screening.