Film educates youth on HIV/AIDS

An African film targeting young men is being used across Africa to educate youth about sexual health issues and HIV/AIDS.

Filmed in Zimbabwe, Yellow Card focuses on teenage pregnancy, which is often considered a girl's problem, and explores what happens when a boy is held accountable for his actions.

Through the story of Tiyane, a young soccer player who becomes a teenage father, the movie tackles the issues of unplanned pregnancy, unsafe abortion and HIV/AIDS.

"Gender-based inequalities still persist in Africa. Girls frequently do not reach their potential and boys have a false sense of power and domination," Elizabeth Lule, the regional vice-president of reproductive health organisation, Pathfinder International, said. Previously many interventions focused on women, and this needed to be corrected, she added.

Prior to writing the film-script, interviews and discussion groups were held with teenagers all over Zimbabwe. The youth interviewed knew about HIV/AIDS, but said most of the information and education campaigns were "boring and dull". As a result of these discussions, the film encourages sexual responsibility, especially among young men.

"There are no prescriptions to matters of sex, whether it is about AIDS, pregnancy or other issues ... the film doesn't lecture teenagers. Rather, we are trying to give them something to think about," film director John Riber said.

According to the film makers, the film was particularly useful when communicating with illiterate and semi-literate audiences, but it became even more so when the issues in the film were discussed as part of a facilitated discussion.

Funding was received to distribute the film free of charge to organisations working at grassroots level in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

In addition to the grassroots distribution, the film is showing in cinemas and on television in all five countries. Alternative distribution outlets, including mobile units in Tanzania, Kenya and Zimbabwe, and video cafes in Uganda, Nigeria and Mozambique, are being used too. The film will be released in South Africa this week.

Although it was filmed in Zimbabwe with a Zimbabwean cast, the film has proved hugely popular across the continent. It recently aired on Nigerian television and will soon be used in HIV/AIDS centres in Papua New Guinea.