Segment 1

DIPRA RAY [exchange student]

HIV now has basically gotten rid of our defense, right?

VOICEOVER

It's not the usual pre-game pep talk. These young Malaysian football players are learning about a challenge very different from winning today's game: keeping themselves safe from HIV and AIDS. This lesson has become a standard ritual of youth football leagues in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. It is a new approach to reach out to young people, who are increasingly at risk of catching and spreading HIV.

GAYE PHILLIPS [UNICEF Representative to Malaysia]

In Malaysia, more than 37 percent of the group who are currently infected are between the ages of 13 and 29. That's a serious population group that we need to look at. Because it shows us that young people are not being well informed.

VOICEOVER

In partnership with the Football Association of Malaysia, UNICEF and the Association for the International Exchange of Students of Economics and Commerce, known as AIESEC, are working to make youth more aware of the dangers of HIV, and what they can do to avoid it. Dipra Ray is an exchange student from New Zealand. He believes it's critical for young people to hear this message from other young people … and in an active setting far from the classroom.

DIPRA RAY

For us I think that's the biggest motivation: it's that we're coming here, we're having fun, but at the same time we try to make sure that they get the lesson. Because if the young generation, if we -- if I and my friends -- if we know how we can stop HIV, we can stop it. It's not like it has to spread. It can be stopped.

VOICEOVER

For young footballer Shawn Daniels, it's a lesson that is starting to sink in.

SHAWN DANIELS

I learned about many things: how to protect myself, how to say no.

VOICEOVER

A winning game plan for young people to follow, long after the whistle is blown. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this is Steve Nettleton reporting for UNICEF Television. Unite for children.