ccording to careful estimates, more than 10% of all South Africans are HIV positive. Yet there are regions in South Africa where the estimated rate is even higher. Every second newborn in the mining region of Rustenberg has been tested positive on HIV. These figures clearly point up the drama going on in Southern Africa. Hence, the Afro Project did not think twice when Miriam Makeba asked to support the initiative "Steps for the Future", a project of which she is the patroness.
Thus the 17th Africa festival set its focus on AIDS projects in South Africa. The Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer technische Zusammenarbeit (association for technical cooperation, GTZ), informed the visitors about their campaigns and projects of AIDS help. In addition, “Steps for the Future” and other African organizations such as the "Nelson Mandelas Childrens Fund", provided information about their projects within a panel discussion. The discussion was sponsored by the Bundeszentrale fuer politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education, bpb).
"Steps for the Future" shot 30 movies in Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, which deal with the topic HIV/AIDS and AIDS prevention in a humorous, provocative and positive way. Some of these movies were shown at the festival. This October, the Afro Project, in cooperation with the Wuerzburg fashion label s.Oliver, Condomi, DaimlerChrysler South Africa and the music show "Mixery Raw Deluxe" of the TV channel VIVA, 1 million condoms will be sent to South Africa and distributed together with “Steps of the Future”. Within this campaign, music and theater performances will play an important role for education as many people in South Africa do not know how to read or write. Together with members of "Steps", the Wuerzburg team of the Afro Project will travel to a rural region of the Western Cape and show some movies. Accompanying the team are two teenagers tested positive on HIV. They will talk to the people about the importance of AIDS prevention and help distributing the condoms.
The project will be accompanied by a camera team, who had already documented the condom production in Erfurt, Germany, and shot the start of the campaign at the 17th Africa Festival. The complete movie will be shown at next year's 18th Africa Festival and broadcasted on the TV channel ARTE. The sponsoring parties Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian radio station), VIVA and the local newspaper MAINPOST will also report about the project.