Salvador Scores First for the 2014 World Cup

Online, March 5, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Victor Mooney of Queens, New York and executive director of South African Arts International, Ltd. (USA) ended his two week visit to Brazil on Sunday with the launch of the One Million Score A Goal for an AIDS-free generation campaign in the City of Salvador, a host city for the 2014 World Cup.

In the Historic Centre (known in Portuguese as The Pelourinho), Victor Hugo Poria Nasicmento, ten years old, scored the first goal out of 1,000,000 on Friday. The campaign will spread throughout the other host cities before and during the championship series matches in Belo Horizonte, Brasila, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other areas. This campaign has been underway in the United States since 2011.

"To reach an AIDS-free generation, we need everyone to score a goal", said Victor Mooney in Salvador.

While in Brazil, Mr. Mooney over saw the logistics for shipping his twenty-foot custom made row boat, "the Spirit of Malabo", to New York. Later this year, Mr. Mooney will make his fourth bid to row across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to New York's Brooklyn Bridge with a resupply in the British Virgin Islands.

During the 5,000 mile trek across the Atlantic Ocean, Mr. Mooney will have a little company. The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has sent the AIDS activist, who has lost one brother to AIDS and has another battling the disease, some official World Cup Match Balls. When Mr. Mooney arrives in New York, he'll pass the balls back to FIFA for their "Football for Hope Program".

In an email exchange, Mr. Federico Addiechi, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for FIFA, said "We congratulate you for your commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS as well as for your courageous sporting challenge".

Locally, the Goree Challenge project received support from US Consulate in Sao Paulo, the Prefeitura de Santos, Mediterranean Shipping Company, DSV Air & Sea Logistica Ltda., despachogeral, Roberto Barros Yacht Design, Flab Construção Artesanal de Embarcacoes and the Santos FC.

Goree Challenge is a project of the New York City based South African Arts International (SAAI). SAAI has received a generous support from The Republic of Equatorial Guinea, an unprecedented amount of in-kind and moral support from over seventy corporations, governments and global health institutions.

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea (Republica de Guinea Ecuatorial) is the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa, and one of the smallest nations on the continent. In the late-1990s, American companies helped discover the country's oil and natural gas resources, which only within the last five years began contributing to the global energy supply. H.E., President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has championed the fight against AIDS through preventive education, condom distribution and financing of antiretroviral medicine for afflicted populations. The Head of State also called for a shared responsibility in fighting the disease. For more, visit www.goreechallenge.com.