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ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire, Feb. 20, 2004 — The highly acclaimed third season of PSI's award-winning and long-running television series "SIDA dans la Cité" (SDLC), or "AIDS in the City," is expanding its broadcast to most of French-speaking West and Central Africa thanks to a corporate partnership with the Coca Cola Africa Foundation. The SDLC series has been produced by PSI/Côte d'Ivoire and partner NGO Agence Ivoirienne de Marketing Social, to promote AIDS prevention practices and has received financial support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Federal Republic of Germany through KfW Entwicklungsbank (the German development bank) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. SDLC 3 will now been seen in nine additional countries. Due to the Coca Cola Africa Foundation partnership, the expansion of SDLC 3 to Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Cameroon, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea will enable millions of people to learn about important issues related to HIV/AIDS through the sixteen-episode television drama. SDLC 3 narrates four separate stories which promote responsible behavior change amongst the sexually-active populations of West and Central Africa, motivate increased demand for and use of voluntary counseling and HIV testing services and reduce stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS by demonstrating the possibility of living positively with the virus. The first story, entitled "The Story of the Fiancés" revolves around the themes of prenuptial testing and accepting one's HIV positive status. "Adams, the Truck Driver," the second story, informs the public of the unsafe behaviors surrounding mobile populations. "Amoin Séry," the third installment, addresses the consequences of risky behaviors such as multiple partners and polygamy. The final story, "Fatoumata, the HIV-Positive Mother," profiles the problem of mother-to-child transmission. The original USAID-funded SDLC hit Ivorian airwaves in 1994 and won
best fictional film in the television/video category at the 1995 Africa
Film festival, FESPACO. The second SDLC series was produced in 1996.
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