MTV Collaboration Promotes Drug-Free Lifestyle in Russia

MOSCOW, Russia, Feb. 20, 2004 — PSI has launched a website targeting Russian youth and teamed up with MTV to host a series of music concerts as part of a campaign promoting the healthy benefits of a drug-free lifestyle in a country where the Ministry of Health estimates that 75% of the country's HIV-positive people are drug users age 15-29. Funding for the concerts and website is provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

More than four million Russians use drugs; over 60% of them are ages 16-30 and almost 20% are school-aged youth, according to the Russian State Department of Drug Control. The PSI/Russia campaign Zhivi (Live) and its concerts offer a healthy entertainment option for youth who are faced with the temptation of drugs, particularly injecting drugs, a common mode of HIV transmission.

In late 2003, PSI and MTV collaborated on nine concerts which were held at schools and universities in Moscow and featured top Russian music talent. The concerts were hosted by popular MTV video jockeys who were assisted by PSI volunteers. PSI peer educators, sporting stylish military-green T-shirts with the PSI and MTV logos and the word nedrug (a play on words meaning "no drugs" and "drugs are not your friends"), circulated through the audience before and after the concerts, discussing the consequences of drug use and distributing educational material. The peer educators, who are trained in the ABCs of HIV prevention (abstinence, be faithful and condoms) were also able to address matters related to HIV/AIDS when approached by youth.

Special five-minute films were developed from each concert and were broadcast by MTV Russia multiple times, actively exposing millions of MTV viewers to the campaign.

"We are using a multi-faceted approach to drive behavior change," explains PSI/Russia Country Representative Nicola Morgan. "By using a range of information channels, including concerts, music television, internet and interpersonal communications, we hope youth will receive powerful messages which motivate them to make healthy life-style decisions and keep them of drugs."

The corresponding Zhivi website (www.zhivi.ru) was launched in October 2003 and received over 200,000 unique visitors in the first three months. The lively website features quizzes, interactive contests, a moderated forum, a frequently asked questions page, health statistics and access to a virtual lawyer and a virtual doctor, whereby an online form lets the viewer submit a question directly to a trained health professional or to a lawyer who will respond to the query.

Along with the website, PSI plans to continue their outreach endeavors with more concerts in Moscow in 2004, and a possible expansion of activities to St. Petersburg, Samara and Saratov.

— Karrie Carnes, PSI/Washington

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Each concert in the PSI/Russia Zhivi series was filmed by MTV and transformed into a mini-feature which aired on the popular music television network, exposing millions of viewers to the campaign.