Donation will heighten AIDS awareness in region

She has been in Canada for a week, first attending a seminar for Caribbean journalists and over the last three days reporting from the International AIDS Conference in Toronto. Tonight News Five’s Kendra Griffith offers some details on one very tangible result for the region coming out of the conference.

Kendra Griffith, Reporting
The challenge has been made:

Bill Roedy, Sr. V.P., MTV Networks Intl.
?Media have such a huge role to play in this fight ,and as a member of the media industry, I can fully admit that we are not doing enough.?

… And accepted

Allyson Leacock, Chair, Executive Cmtee., C.B.M.P.
?AIDS is now the leading cause of death among adults in the Caribbean between the ages of fifteen and forty-four. That has a potential to decimate not just our people but our economies as small island states. The creation of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS is a new effort; I believe, among media professionals and broadcasters in the region, in particular to use our communication platforms to cover and to advance the fight against HIV/AIDS.?

To help in that effort, on Wednesday the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Elton John Foundation and the Ford Foundation donated one million U.S. dollars to the C.B.M.P.

Allyson Leacock
?This will give us the necessary resources to immediately begin production of our new programming materials, our awareness campaigns and our other initiatives that I just outlined to you. It is a historic collaboration between Caribbean broadcasters and major international partners. It is a major step forward.?

Matt James, Sr. V. P., Kaiser Family Foundation
?This is not just public service announcement that is going to show up at two in the morning when no one is watching. There certainly are public service announcements, but they will be targeted at the populations who are most at risk trying to reach them with the information that they need.?

Kendra Griffith
?That information is crucial to residents in the Caribbean where issues such as stigma, discrimination, homophobia, and lack of access to treatment are contributing to the spread of HIV. Reporting from the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada, I’m Kendra Griffith for News Five.?

Prior to the funding of the C.B.M.P., Caribbean broadcasters were already donating thousands of hours of airtime for AIDS related P.S.A.s and programming.