FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2003

"Living Positively" Program in Francophone Africa Features
New Video and Comic Book To Combat HIV/AIDS Stigma

ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire - A new comic book and video designed to alleviate the stigmatization of and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS is being distributed now in French-speaking Africa under a program called "Living Positively."

Living Positively addresses behaviors, attitudes, and recommended practices for people infected or affected by HIV, and those who do not yet know their HIV status. The program shows how to reveal one's status to loved ones, join an association, accept a parent or friend living with HIV, and follow a healthy lifestyle. Living Positively is part of the HIV/AIDS communication strategy for the Family Health and AIDS (FHA) project for 2002 and 2003. FHA is supported by the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID).

The video, Living Positively, and the comic book, Marcelline et Jojo: Un combat pour la vie, promote the concept of "living positively." Both products were designed and developed for the public at large and for people living with or affected by HIV.

Marcelline et Jojo: Un combat pour la vie
This 32-page color comic book tells the simple yet moving story of Jojo, a young student in his twenties who has just learned his HIV status and does not know where to turn. But some relatives actively involved with support groups for people living with HIV or AIDS (including his aunt Marcelline) live very near him. The comic book, developed with the assistance of South African editor Neil Verlaque, provides advice on nutrition, the treatment of opportunistic infections, and the need to join a support group and/or an association for people living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA).

Living Positively
Burkina Faso filmmaker Fanta Nacro produced the 42-minute video featuring testimonies from West Africans living with HIV or AIDS that describe how their families and community accepted them after learning their HIV status. A wide range of topics, from the most intimate to the more practical, is explored on the video.

These two communication tools are the result of a collaboration between FHA, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs (CCP), UNAIDS, and RAP+, le Réseau Africain des Personnes Vivant avec le VIH/SIDA. The objectives and content of the comic book and video were developed during a workshop that brought together PLWHAs, representatives of several PLWHA NGOs representatives in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal and Togo, health providers, HIV/AIDS program managers, cartoonists, and a filmmaker.

The comic book and video will be distributed throughout Francophone Africa (West and Central), to national AIDS control programs, PLWHA associations, AIDS NGOs, VCT sites and FHA partners.

French version of "Living Positively"

For more information contact: Kim Martin at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, USA. Tel: 410 659-6140; Fax: 410 659-6266 e-mail: press@jhuccp.org.

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Photos courtesy of Photoshare, a service of The INFO Project.