HIV/AIDS is a World-Wide pandemic which has been decimating the lives of men, women and children for more than 20 years. Today we bring you videos that discuss HIV/AIDS in its different aspects: how to live with it, protect yourself from it and how to raise awareness to the cause. From Cameroon, an award winning song about AIDS, from Argentina, a campaign that is not afraid to tell youth what a condom is and how to use it, and from Beijing, a video on discrimination, living with it AIDS and the strength to make the condition public.
Koumandjara [2] is a song in French by Deny Munka [3] which won an award in 2005 in a contest organized by the National Committee in the Fight Against AIDS (CNLS) in Cameroon. It tells about risky behaviours, preventive measures and about the songs namesake, a young girl who contracts HIV through a female genital cutting procedure:
In Argentina, a national campaign was launched last year to promote condom use among teenagers. The successful triki-triki bang-bang campaign is being relaunched this year [4] with a different version, geared towards educating youth on how to negotiate condom usage. On the following behind-the-scenes video clip [5], the organizers explain how the TV videos are a way to bring youth towards their website, where they will be able to access much more information regarding prevention, testing and more. With their new slogan “if you don't put it on then I'll put it on you” they set the stage for the series of videos [4]on how to integrate condoms into sexual play by using flavored, textured, colored condoms, how to get both partners engaged in the usage of condoms and even how to put it on using the mouth, in order to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Videos and website are in Spanish.
QAFBeijing [6] touts itself as being the first independent gay video podcast in China and in this 5 part video, they show two distinct cases: first, they speak to South African grand justice Edwin Cameron, an openly gay and HIV positive man who was personally appointed by Nelson Mandela to his office, who states:
I'm still the only person holding public office in South African who has chosen to make public my HIV status, I felt I was called to witness. I felt called to account for my survival in a country in which hundreds of thousands were dying unnecessary deaths. I did not feel I could or should remain silent…
They also show the story of Xiaozhou, a young gay man living in China who shares how he found out about his HIV status, how he has dealt with it and what his expectations and hopes are for the future. The video is subtitled both in Chinese and English, with audio in both languages:
Part one [7] of the video follows, and you can view part 2 [8], part 3 [9], part 4 [9] and part 5 [10] by following the previous links.