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CABLE POSITIVE JOINS FORCES WITH THE VOICE OF AMERICA AND BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION (BET) TO COMBAT AIDS IN AFRICA NEW YORK, NY - November 14, 2000 "VOA reaches more people in Africa than any other communications medium," said Steve Villano, Executive Director, Cable Positive "with some 40% of their listeners -or almost 36 million people-located throughout Africa. They have a network of reporters and free-lancers in the field who can cover the Continent, reporting on the virus first hand, and bring our joint message of HIV education and prevention to the people of the Sub-Saharan countries. This is a powerful, public-private partnership between Cable Positive-and our industry resources-and the VOA with its vast international audience and skilled network of field reporters. " Cable Positive donated $50,000 in honor of Cable Positive Honorary Chair Marc Nathanson, Vice Chairman, Charter Communications, and a member of the International Broadcasting Bureau's Board of Directors, for the specially produced World AIDS Day hip-hop activities that include a concert in Cape Town, South Africa on December 1 (World AIDS Day) and a festival in Beira, Mozambique on December 2. Bush Radio in Cape Town, South Africa will host the concert on December 1 featuring local talent including the hip-hop group BVK (Brassie Vannie Kaap), rapper Mr. Devious, popular Cape Town Kwaaito group Innadiflo and others. Radio Pax will host a daylong festival on December 2 in Beira, Mozambique with traditional and contemporary local musicians, dancers, and theatrical performers. Asem, a theatrical group composed of orphans from Mozambique's civil war, Rapazes do Campo, a group from a district which suffered massive floods last year, and two nationally known musical groups, Rastilho and Licuba were all chosen to perform for their messages about HIV/AIDS. The focus of the festivities will be to reach out to at-risk youth of high-school age with messages about HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and tolerance. The VOA will produce a documentary on these events that BET International has agreed to air in the months following the concert. BET will also provide talent from their HITS program to emcee the events in South Africa. More than 23 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 14.8 million men, women and children have died of the disease-a figure of infection and death that greatly surpasses the totals of every other nation in the world combined. Worldwide, since the epidemic began 20 years ago, 18.8 million people have died according to the World Health Organization. The VOA/Cable Positive initiative will use radio, television and the internet to reach Southern African audiences, and tell the stories of people either struggling with the disease, or its destructive effects upon their families. Cable Positive is a national non-profit organization that was founded in February 1992 by three cable executives with the mission of organizing cable's resources in the fight against AIDS. Cable Positive is dedicated to unifying the talents, resources, access and influence of the communications industry to raise AIDS awareness to fund AIDS education, research and care; and to promote a more compassionate climate for people whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Cable Positive has grown to include supporters from every major cable network, MSO system, hardware manufacturer, trade association, media publication, and affiliated vendors and suppliers. For more information about Cable Positive, call 212.459.1502 or log on to our website at www.cablepositive.org.
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