Football therapy for Zimbabwe's HIV-positive women

HARARE: Taking a breather after a heavy training session, Elizabeth Maseswa recalls how she was kicked out of her Harare home for revealing her HIV status before finding a new family on the football field. "Five years ago, my own mother disowned me and ordered me out of the house. I had no one to turn to before I joined the team," said 26-year-old Maseswa, the skipper of the table-topping ARV Swallows. "Playing football helps me a lot, it relieves stress and we share our problems as a team." The ARV (Anti-retroviral drugs) Swallows are one of 16 teams all made up HIV-positive women formed by veteran football administrator Chris Sambo. Other teams include Stigma Eradicated and Virus Ambassadors, whose players have forged a family-like bond which should be the envy of some of the teams who have exited the World Cup in neighbouring South Africa. In a country, which is not only in the eye of the AIDS pandemic's storm but also suffered severe food shortages during a prolonged economic crisis, such solidarity and companionship is vital. "Sometimes I have lacked even basics like salt, but once I tell my teammates they help me out and also get me things I haven't even mentioned," said Maseswa. "We share each other's burdens." Apart from the camaraderie, players say the football had made them fitter. "I now feel like (former Zimbabwe footballer) Peter Ndlovu," said Maseswa's 29-year-old teammate Deliwe Murwira.