Lesotho’s Lishoeshoe soccer club was losing by four goals at halftime against South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns in the final of a regional Under-17 girls’ tournament in Zimbabwe aimed at promoting cervical cancer vaccination. By fulltime, the gap had stretched to 5-0.
Yet for Lishoeshoe winger Nteboheleng Leticia Sooane, the result felt beside the point.
For the 16-year-old, the tournament’s most important outcome had little to do with goalmouth scrambles or final-whistle disappointment.
Instead, it was about building confidence among girls to trust the HPV vaccine and prevent a disease that kills a woman every two minutes globally — with the burden most acute in Africa, according to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, one of the tournament’s organizers.
“Participating in the tournament was very good because we had to learn and spread (the message) even though we did not win the finals.
So it was a good experience,” Sooane said as she waited to collect her finalist’s medal in a rain-soaked stadium in Norton, on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.
Sooane was among about 200 girls from six countries taking part in the CAF Under-17 girls’ tournament in December, organized by Africa’s soccer governing body CAF together with the European soccer body, GAVI and health ministries from several African countries.
AP