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DC Soccer Raises $20,000 for Goals for Girls an HIV/AIDS Prevention Program

DC Soccer raised $20,000 at a February 28 fundraiser for Goals for Girls, an international program that hopes to channel the world’s interest in soccer and use it to engage young people in HIV/AIDS prevention education. More than 100 people, including US Soccer elite and a member of DC local government, enjoyed the South Africa wine tasting fundraiser, which was accompanied by a silent and live auction.

Tiffany Roberts, a member of the Gold medal 1994 Women’s Soccer team and the 1999 World Cup team, and Curt Onalfo, a former member of the Men’s national team and Head Coach of the Kansas City Wizards showed off their auctioneering skills by keeping the bids coming on two touching photographs by photographer Alice Keeney. Keeney, in turn, graciously agreed to make copies of the photographers for the top two bidders for each item.

Roberts and Onalfo also kept the crowd enthusiastic as the bids came in to help fund a sustainable girl’s street soccer program called “Girls Kick Too” in Port Elizabeth. Through the live auction, the attendees donated money – just $100 a week -- to fund the program for a year. Other items for auction included a soccer jersey signed by Tiffany Roberts, a soccer lesson with Soccer Hall of Famer Len Oliver, and a soccer ball autographed by the DC United.

“When girls are active they are empowered,” Tiffany said during the live auction. Tiffany, who is the Goals for Girls head coach, said that she was inspired to join Goals for Girls after seeing girls with no shoes playing soccer during a trip to Uganda.

Other guests at the fundraiser included John Koskinen and Phyllis Reidler from the US Soccer Foundation, event sponsors, Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., DC United players Shawn Crow and Guy-Roland Kpene, DC Freedom Midfielder Lori Lindsey, and US Soccer Hall of Famer Len Oliver.

Through the Goals for Girls program, the DC Blast, a competitive U-16 girls soccer team from the DC area, will be traveling to Port Elizabeth in July to run a soccer camp for about 150 South African girls. During the camp, all the girls will participate in HIV prevention activities and a cultural exchange. South Africa has some of the highest rates of HIV infection in all of Africa, and women and girls are 2.5 times more likely to contract HIV than men and boys.

The camps will be run in partnership with two local organizations: Ubuntu, an educational foundation that is based out of Port Elizabeth and works with over 40,000 children and their families to provide them with tools to get a better education and Grassroot Soccer, an international HIV prevention organization that uses the game of soccer to teach young people how to avoid the risks of HIV/AIDS and how to care for those who are infected and affected by it.