Algeria, 19 May 2014 -- UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNICEF under the leadership of the Ministry of Health, Population and Hospital Reform in close collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Ministry, announces official stopover in Algeria of the world tour of "Protect the goal" campaign from 17 to 20 May 2014. The world tour, which runs under the slogan “From Soweto to Bahia” will take a “Protect the Goal” football from South Africa towards Brazil, around the occasion of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The ball will pass in African countries qualified for the World Cup and will stop in Cameroon, Ghana , Nigeria , Côte d' Ivoire and Algeria where the ball will arrive on May 17 carried by Dr. Djibril Diallo, Senior Adviser to the Executive Director of UNAIDS

On this occasion many activities are planned to celebrate the launch of the campaign which include friendly tournaments between NGOs, awareness sessions in the streets and youth structures and to the fans who leave Brazil as well as events on social networks organized by civil society to promote prevention messages and fight against stigma and discrimination. The Protect the Goal ball will also be signed by HE Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the Algeria. Dr Djibril Diallo will also have formal meetings with Minister of Sports, Minister of Youth, Minister Delegate in charge of Maghrebin and African Affairs and Secretary General of the Ministry of Health. The Protect the Goal pledge will also be signed by the captain of the Algerian team during the visit of Dr Diallo.

Launched in 2010 at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the campaign 'Protect the goal', received the support of personalities from the world of football, culture and youth. UNAIDS has signed cooperation agreements with the Confederation of African Football (CAF ), the Confederation of Soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), the South American Football Association (CONMEBOL ) and the Asian Football Confederation (CAF).

The ball "Protect the goal" will be signed by the Heads of State or their representatives to show their support for the campaign for a world with zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS- related deaths. A series of important activities is provided at each stop in each country whose team qualified for the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 under the leadership of Mr Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS .

"We are at an historic moment with the outpouring of support for the campaign,” said Djibril Diallo, Senior Adviser to the Executive Director of UNAIDS, adding “UNAIDS is excited to mobilize the power and popularity of football towards achieving a unified goal – a world without AIDS – as the 2015 Millennium Development Goal deadline approaches."

Combining the power of sport and culture , the campaign " protect the goal" has three objectives : to raise awareness about HIV and encourage young people to focus on prevention and emphasize the need to ensure that the 15 million people living with HIV have access by 2015, treatment that will save their life.

The global launch of the campaign on "International protect the goal day" June 9, 2014 in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, will be in the form of an official event with football stars and government officials. Activities will be organized in parallel in several countries worldwide. Algeria under the leadership of the Ministry of Health, the leader of the national response to AIDS, will celebrate the day with many community activities and prevention closely with youth associations and the fight against AIDS in several cities.

Globally it is estimated that 5.4 million adolescents and young people live with HIV. Millions of young people living with HIV without knowing they are infected and every day about 2,100 teens and young people are newly infected , which represents about 36 % of new infe tions in the world.

In Algeria, 8258 people have been infected with HIV since 1985 until December 2013, among them 18% are young people aged 15 to 29 years.

Many African countries have been able to significantly reduce the prevalence of HIV among young people aged 15-20 years. HIV prevalence among young people in Africa has decreased by 39 % between 2001 and 2012. Despite this progress, young people aged 15-24 years accounted for 41 % of new infections in the population between 15 and older in Africa in 2012.

UNAIDS Algeria: Melle Benyahia Zahra [email protected] 0662 98 20 01

UNICEF Algeria: MrFayç[email protected] 0661 50 84 43

UNIC Algeria : Mme [email protected] 0661 51 33 26