Ford Foundation, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Kaiser Family Foundation Pledge $1M to Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS
The Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation on Wednesday at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto announced that they will join the Kaiser Family Foundation in providing $1 million to support the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS, Channel5Belize.com reports (Griffith, Channel5Belize.com, 8/16). The partnership includes more than 30 radio and television companies from 22 Caribbean nations and aims to broaden access to effective HIV/AIDS messages. It was formed in May at the Caribbean Broadcast Media Leadership Summit on HIV/AIDS, which was organized by the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, the Caribbean Broadcasting Union and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The partnership and summit responded to the goals of the Global Media AIDS Initiative, a call to action by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for world media leaders to use communication resources to help address the HIV/AIDS pandemic (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/11). "Media-based public education campaigns are a powerful force to motivate social change and deliver lifesaving information to young people" Kaiser Family Foundation Senior Vice President Matt James said, adding, "The generous support of the Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation are essential to helping the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership develop programming that will both entertain, inform and potentially save lives." EJAF Founder Elton John said, "We know that the media is our most powerful tool to get out information and change attitudes. I am delighted that my foundation, in conjunction with our partners at Kaiser and Ford, will work directly with Caribbean broadcasters to help educate their audiences, promote tolerance and change the public dialogue about this epidemic." The partnership agreed to dedicate 12 minutes of airtime daily to HIV/AIDS programming. Activities conducted during the partnership's first year will include a public service campaign, journalist briefings and trainings, workshops for writers and producers and original programs with HIV/AIDS-related themes (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 8/16). "That $1 million is just the beginning, so this is not $1 million dollars for the entire life of our partnership -- it's just to get it going," Jacob Gayle, deputy vice president for Ford's Global Initiative on HIV/AIDS, said (Jamaica Gleaner, 8/18). CBC General Manager Allyson Leacock said that the media will lead the initiative and educate audiences with the "kinds of programming that will demonstrate to our audiences that we are serious about [HIV/AIDS]" (Channel5Belize.com, 8/16).
CBC on Wednesday reported on the announcement, as well as the business aspects of including HIV/AIDS messages in broadcast programming and electronic messaging, such as mobile phone texting. The segment includes comments from Solly Mokoetle, CFO of the South African Broadcasting Corporation and chair of the African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS; Peter Mukerjea, CEO of Star India; and Leacock (Forde, CBC, 8/16). The complete segment is available online in Windows Media.
Kaisernetwork.org is serving as the official webcaster of the conference. View the guide to coverage and all webcasts, interviews and a daily video round up of conference highlights at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/aids2006. A webcast of the press conference announcing the plans for the initiative is available online.