As the children’s show Sesame Street celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, one cute and cuddly Muppet on its South African edition helps combat and raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.
Bright yellow and shy, Kami, the first HIV-positive Muppet, helps educate kids in South Africa about the disease and, having lost her own mother to AIDS, helps many children to cope with the health crisis.
South Africa is believed to have the highest number of people infected with HIV in the world — an estimated 5.7 million people. Approximately 280,000 of those infected are children 14 and younger and there are 1.4 million orphans in the country due to AIDS.
(Read more in Global Voices about this successful educational effort)
In the following video, Kami joins former U.S. president Bill Clinton to deliver a message from UNICEF about HIV/AIDS.