New Kenyan Show to Raise AIDS Awareness Themes
The new Kenyan soap opera "Heart and Soul" will address HIV/AIDS in Africa and contain "edutainment" themes to raise awareness of the disease, Agence France-Presse reports. The show, filmed by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation with assistance from the BBC and featuring Kenyan actors, has the support of 24 U.N. agencies with offices in Nairobi, as well as the British Council, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Ford Foundation and Kenya's National AIDS Control Council. "Heart and Soul" will portray an aging husband being seduced by a younger woman who has also seduced his son, as the show seeks to reduce promiscuity as "one of the cornerstones of campaigns" against HIV/AIDS. The series is scheduled to begin radio and television broadcasts in Kenya early next year, and producers are hoping it will become a "regular weekly fixture" aired across Africa. U.N. spokesperson Tore Brevik said, "The United Nations is looking for more partners, especially in the private sector, to make sure the project goes on for three to five years" (Vandenberghe, Agence France-Presse, 10/27).
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