By Dayo Farore
Staying Alive Foundation, the initiative of MTV Networks Africa and its partners are bringing back the hit HIV and AIDS TV Drama, ‘Shuga’ to the screens on February 14, 2012, in its second series tagged, ‘Love, Sex, Money’. In a news release made available to Nigerian Entertainment Today (NET), the cast for this series will be announced this July while principle photography for the series will commence production in Nairobi by August 2011.
Shuga tells a bitter-sweet tale of love, loss, sex, heartbreak and relationships. Set in the clubs, bars, campuses and hangouts of contemporary Nairobi, with a raw and uncut view on the lives of sexually active young Kenyans, Shuga spots the risks associated with unprotected sex and the party-hard lifestyles of urban Kenyan youth, told through the interlinked tales of some of its characters…
Speaking on the first series which was broadcast around November 2009, the Country Director for HFG Kenya, Lydia Murimi stated, ‘Shuga had a profound impact on the attitudes of Kenyan youth…Research conducted by Johns Hopkins University/Centre for Communications Programs reported increased intentions for HIV testing, decreased intentions for multiple sex partners, improved attitudes towards people living with HIV and AIDS and increased usage of accessible health and social services among the youth. We hope to be able to replicate that with the sequel as well as introduce new elements that will emerge from our youth studies‘.
The project is being funded by the US Government through her foundation, President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Partnership for an HIV-Free Generation (HFG).
Shuga series one was first aired in November 2009 on MTV Base and a large number of other stations in and out of Africa. It bagged a Gold award in May 2010 at the World Media Festival in Hamburg, Germany in the ‘Public Relations Health‘ category.
