FA partner Nationwide is funding the project which aims to give disadvantaged children in Mali access to quality football coaching through the training and development of local coaches.

The week-long football workshop is taking place in Bamako for local youth workers and amateur coaches, working towards an FA Youth Coach Award. Children will take part in the coaching sessions and International Service will be running parallel workshops using art, drama and music to raise awareness of key health issues such as HIV and AIDS.

This is not the first time The FA has used football to highlight these issues. In May, England players Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville and David James visited Malawi as part of an FA initiative on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

Upon returning from that trip, Ferdinand said: "If more football stars were involved in delivering the HIV/AIDS awareness message, I believe it could make a difference."

Gary Neville added: "I learnt more about HIV and AIDS in the two days we spent in Malawi than during the whole of my life. The need to deliver better messages to combat the stigma of HIV is paramount."

IS will run the AIDS awareness talks in Mali all week. The African country has a population of 11.4 million with nine out of ten living below the $2-a-day poverty line. The population rate is growing at almost 3% with HIV and AIDS on the increase. The most recent survey estimates 1.6% of the population is infected - around 140,000 people.

FA Head of International Relations Jane Bateman said: "The trip to Mali not only helps The FA develop football abroad but just as importantly provides crucial messages in an economically poor region where young people have very little concept of AIDS prevention.