On the eve of the FIFA U-17 World Cup Indonesia 2023™ Final, and to recognise World AIDS Day, the FIFA Foundation has joined forces with Perkumpulan Rumah Cemara to organise a friendly match in Bandung. As part of the Indonesia Without Stigma campaign, the friendly match involved players from the National Homeless World Cup team, people living with HIV (PLHIV), drug consumers, members of other marginalised groups and the public.

Following the match, more than 50 players aged 16 and above played in the friendly match and will now travel to Surakarta to attend the FIFA U-17 World Cup Final™ between Germany and France on Saturday. Rumah Cemara, an NGO which is supported by the FIFA Foundation Community Programme, works towards building an Indonesia without stigma and discrimination where everyone has equal access to quality health care, is protected under rights-based law and human rights, and has an opportunity for development.

In four branches across the country – as well as various festivals across Indonesia – FIFA Foundation funding allows Rumah Cemara to use football to improve the knowledge of HIV AIDS and sexual transmission infection, enhance the understanding of gender equality, and develop agents of change for diversity. “Our support to Rumah Cemara is based on the shared conviction that football is more than a game. Through this programme, football is at the core of the transformation of individuals and communities" said Head of the FIFA Foundation, Mariana Banus.

“We work with Rumah Cemara, but those playing today are the true agents of change. They are helping to educate the communities around us, they are setting the example and they are champions of this movement; a movement that mobilises football for a better and more united world. “This friendly match today, led by the players themselves, illustrates that on and off the pitch, we are all one team, who can join together through one shared passion.”

The football programme is designed to increase participants' awareness and knowledge through different football sessions while also specifically address HIV/AIDS and association topics. There have been over 800 direct beneficiaries aged 10 and older with focus on the most vulnerable groups: including PLHIV, young people in poverty, and girls and women. Programmes like this are particularly important in Indonesia due to the high economic inequality in the nation, where perceptions on HIV, AIDS, sexual transmission infection and gender equality are generally driven by religion, traditions and norms: which are rarely evidence and science based. HIV/AIDS is a manifestation of poverty conditions that exist, taking hold where livelihoods are unsustainable, and the result of the unmitigated impact of the epidemic on social and economic conditions.

World AIDS Day is a global movement to unite people in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Since 1988, communities have stood together on World AIDS Day to show strength and solidarity against HIV stigma and to remember lives lost. The FIFA Foundation Community Programme works with local projects around the world that use the power of football to effect positive social change and to address the most pressing global challenges facing underprivileged children and young people within the communities in which they operate. In 2023, 114 non-governmental organisations were accepted onto the programme, which enables each applicant to apply for funding of up to USD 30,000 to help support football-related projects and initiatives within the communities in which they run.