Sierra Leone community's animations and songs raise awareness about HIV

International development agency Christian Aid has produced an album of songs and two innovative animations to help publicise its SAVE approach to HIV awareness and education in Sierra Leone.

The songs, written and performed by members of the Methodist Youth Resource Centre in Bo, Sierra Leone, tackle the issue of stigma and HIV awareness and have been a hit with radio stations across the country.

The album, which took three months to produce, features 12 songs in a mixture of English and local dialects. They take their inspiration from a range of music, from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, but share common themes of infectious rhythms and uplifting lyrics.

The animations were produced on computer equipment at the youth centre using the skills which were taught to those attending the centre.

Sierra Leone has 48,000 people living with HIV and Christian Aid funds 10 projects there working on issues such as stigma, discrimination, health education, behaviour counselling, support and care, voluntary testing, income generation and mother-to-baby transmission.

Christian Aid is pioneering the SAVE approach with nearly 300 local HIV partners in 40 countries.

Mark Nunn, project manager at Christian Aid said: "To date we have produced 800 CDs which have been distributed to radio stations, local NGOs, schools, churches and the National AIDS Secretariat of Sierra Leone.

"The project has proved to be very popular and we are hoping that we will be able to get enough funding to repeat it in other countries where we work on HIV education, such as Zambia."