Sesame Street

An HIV positive muppet will soon join the cast of South Africa's Takalani Sesame, a local television production of children's educational programme, Sesame Street. With the appearance of Kami, a muppet living with HIV, Takalani Sesame will become the first pre-school television programme to tackle the stigmatisation associated with the disease. The muppet was unveiled at a press conference held on Tuesday in Cape Town, by the Sesame Workshop, the Department of Education, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The addition of the character would promote age-appropriate messages that would create acceptance of people living with HIV/AIDS, Sesame Workshop said in a statement. The educational project will also include television, radio and community outreach projects. It has been designed to support children in their first years of school (3-7 years) in conjunction with South Africa's education system. Radio broadcasts reach more than 15 million young South African children every week, many from underprivileged backgrounds. Kami's arrival is a sign of hope, and proof that no one is too young to learn about AIDS, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said in a statement welcoming the initiative.( Source: PLUSNEWS, 17 September 2002)