By Shafiq Ssazi
Sadat Yiga the Uganda kickboxing National team coach has come out and extended HIV/ AIDs testing and counseling services to all players of the Pentagon kickboxing club at Nateete suburbs in Kampala.
While at the training grounds in Nateete, Sadat said that they were carrying out massive testing of all kickboxing players across the country to curb the spread of the virus among the youth.
“Although we do not have any game currently, we came up with this strategy to test all kick boxers across the country and we have started with the “Ghetto clubs”.
We promote health as we encourage youths to be safe and discourage them from using drugs.
Through sports, we also discourage our funs from using drugs and extend such other friendly services to them as a way of promoting the game. He added.
The ghetto boys from the “Home of worriers” Pentagon kickboxing club in Nateete were marred with joy as they tested negative for HIV.
Rogers Ongoro the captain of the team said that after testing negative, they are going to continue protecting themselves against the virus because they have strong ambitions to fulfill.
Joseph Mugerwa (the black lion) said that; am now ready to face any competitor after testing negative. He also said that; “it is bad to practice this game when you do not know your life status.”
Shafick kiwanuka also known as ‘the killing machine’ who holds the WBF and the African heavy weight champion encouraged all youths to take their life as crucial. Life is costly, he added.
Latif Walugembe the national vice president of the Uganda kick boxing federation said that the game of kick boxing is a contact sport that involves knocking each other, body to body which leads to high chances of blood flowing as a result of too much action in the game.
He also added that the move was made not only to prepare them for professional standards but also enabling sports youths to be a good example to others to stop the spread of the virus as their slogan “mobilization through sports” substantiates.
