Ivoirian football player Gervais Yao Kouassi, better known as Gervinho, has teamed up with UNAIDS to promote the Protect the Goal campaign and to support the UNAIDS vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths.

Gervinho, who signed the Protect the Goal campaign pledge on 8 May in Rome, committed to supporting UNAIDS’ efforts for a generation free of HIV by spreading the message on the importance of HIV prevention, particularly among young people.

Harnessing the power of sport and culture, the Protect the Goal campaign has three specific objectives: to raise awareness of HIV, to encourage young people to commit to HIV prevention and to emphasize the need to ensure that the 15 million people eligible for life-saving antiretroviral treatment can access it by 2015.

Globally, an estimated 5.4 million adolescents and young people are living with HIV, and 1.8 million are eligible for HIV treatment. Millions of young people living with HIV do not know their HIV-positive status, and, every day, approximately 2 100 adolescents and young people become newly infected, which accounts for 36% of all new HIV infections globally.