Giving back

PPCFC players taking part in the HIV Prevention Campaign

Community engagement is a poncey way of saying connecting to the locals. And Phnom Penh Crown football club, of which I am the press officer, is far better than any other club in the country at doing it. In fact I'm quite proud of how much we get stuck in. For the past two nights, a few of our first-team players, the head coach and some of our staff have gone up to Kompong Chhnang to deliver messages and show support for the HIV Prevention Program we are running along side our friends at the SALT Academy. The target audience are High School students from all over the country, more than 2,700 of them, who are in Kompong Chhnang for the High School National Championships. Basically the message is, if you are having unprotected sex, get yourself tested, use condoms and do not look down/discriminate against those who have HIV. It's not something that is talked about much in conservative Cambodia, so its important we lend weight to this important message and our players and staff have thrown themselves into it. They've even got HIV tested too. It's been the same with the One World Futbol Project that we've been running for the past month - delivering indestructible futbols to schools and organisations - where our senior players and Academy youngsters also take part in running football sessions with boys and girls. This is exactly what every professional club in the country should be doing, giving their backing to projects that benefit the community at all levels. Our players are in a privileged position, they play professional sport for a living and need to put themselves up as role models, which is exactly what our club is doing.  Good stuff PPCFC, leading from the front. Oh, and we're currently top of the league table as well.