Sesame Street for AIDS by Tuesday Gutierrez Children all over the world first learn their ABCs from the popular program Sesame Street. But in the South African version, children learn a new set of letters, "H-I-V" and "A-I-D-S." In Takalani Sesame, Kami is like any other children's puppet, except for one significant difference: she has HIV. Kami brings to life the reality of HIV/AIDS and ends the stigma of the disease. Moving almost four years ago to the Takalani Sesame neighborhood, Kami not only represents the face of AIDS in Africa but also the 14 million orphans whose parents have died from the disease, a number which is currently rising as more and more people with children die every year in the region.
According to the UN, "the disease is in effect making orphans of a whole generation of children, jeopardizing their health, their rights, their well-being and sometimes their very survival, not to mention the overall development prospects of their countries."