By Verghese V Joseph –
‘Champion In Me’ (CIM), a sports module conceptualised under the ‘Red Ribbon Revolution’ social initiative by Bangalore Schools Sports Foundation (BSSF) has come forward and set up an initiative BSSF – Crisis Outreach Team, reaching out to athletes and coaches from disadvantaged communities in today’s COVID-19 pandemic situation.
Set up in 2008, CIM is the brainchild of Elvis Joseph – Director, BSSF, exclusively for children and youth living with HIV/AIDS. “Team ‘Champion In Me’ has taken the lead to reach out to the community in response to COVID-19 situation. We thank God for having us protected and helped us to reach out and serve the community,” Joseph said.
Over the last two weeks, CIM has handed over food provisions to 1,200 people living with HIV in the community and support 300 children in various organizations. Food provisions given to sustain for 2 months contain: rice – 10 kg, dhal – 5 kg, wheat – 5kg, ragi flour – 5kg, soogi – 5 kg, sugar – 3kg, oil – 2 liter and spices – 1 packet.
“We have also formed an action response team to deliver Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) to people in the community at their homes in both rural and urban Bengaluru. ART is a treatment that suppresses or stops a retrovirus. HIV is one of the retrovirus that causes AIDS and ART is used to treat HIV infection and is recommended for everyone who has HIV. We are also happy to inform that precaution has been taken and there has been zero cases of COVID-19 reported in the community of people living with HIV. We thank you for your continued prayers support and encouragement,” Joseph added.
In 2018, while celebrating their decade-long efforts in the field of eradicating stigma and discrimination faced by Children living with HIV (CLHIV), ‘Champion In Me’ unveiled its Vision-2020 goals, which aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of creating sustainable financial modules to address the needs raised by HIV/AIDS. It showcased best practices, induct new strategic partner programs to strengthen the HIV Community while advocating, educating and empowering the society with their mission goals.
CIM was initiated in 2008 as an exclusive sports project for children and youth living with HIV/AIDS with about 100 children participating in the first annual sports meet. Over a decade the project has touched nearly 3000 children across various support centres and care centres across India empowering their lives through sports, giving them equal opportunities and the right to play sports.
Mr. Elvis Joseph stress the importance on how the CIM has been a project that has built the lives of children and youth living with HIV/AIDS for over a decade now. “This project should be shared as a best practice and it is the need of the hour that governments and agencies endorse initiatives like ours for the benefit of children across the world. Without government intervention and support of International agencies, noble initiatives like ‘Champion In Me’ that have helped in positively transforming lives of the children and youth, will be a far-fetched dream,” he added.