UN Children's Fund names HIV-positive muppet 'children's champion'

The United Nations Children's Fun (UNICEF) today formally appointed Kami, the HIV-positive Muppet who appears regularly on the South African co-production of Sesame Street - Takalani Sesame - as a global "Champion for Children."

Kami has brought levity and compassion to a topic that so often evokes the opposite. On Takalani Sesame, the furry yellow Muppet, a five-year-old, HIV-positive girl orphaned by AIDS, confronts issues related to HIV-positive children in a way that three- to seven-year-olds can understand.

Kami's first appearance with UNICEF under this new collaboration will be in Geneva on 26 November, when she will help launch an important new UNICEF report, Africa's Orphaned Generations, which details the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in Africa.

"The appeal of the partnership is that through characters like Kami, we can highlight areas where children are particularly vulnerable - from illiteracy to disability and abuse - in ways that are gentle, honest and compassionate," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.

"A partnership between UNICEF and Sesame Workshop couldn't be more natural," Ms. Bellamy added. "Our common focus is on children around the world, who all share the same fundamental right to lives of dignity, peace and opportunity."

HIV/AIDS is increasingly impacting the lives of very young children in the developing world, but especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2002, 800,000 children under age 15 became HIV-positive; the overwhelming majority were infected at birth and will die before they turn five.

The region faces an orphan crisis of gargantuan proportions. HIV/AIDS killed about 2 million African adults in 2002. The percentage of orphans whose parents died from HIV/AIDS has grown from 3.5 percent in 1990 to 32 percent in 2001. By 2010, there will be approximately 20 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS, bringing the total number of orphans there to 40 million.