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Ugandan Musicians Join to Promote HIV Prevention

New Approach to HIV/AIDS Awareness Unites Top Artists for Music Video

Rockville, MD – November 27, 2006 – The Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP) based in Kampala, Uganda hopes that "A Little Bit of Love" has the power to change Ugandans' behavior. More than 30 local musicians, many of who are major recording artists in Uganda, joined together to create "A Little Bit of Love," a song that encourages HIV prevention efforts. The groundbreaking song and its accompanying video, which recently hit the Ugandan airwaves, was commissioned by MUWRP and produced in collaboration with DownTown Entertainment.

"The aim of this project is to revamp the standard HIV prevention campaign," says Lillian Mutengu Kasirye, MUWRP Community Outreach Coordinator. "Additionally, we hope this song encourages local employers to bolster their HIV prevention efforts." Program staff also expect that "A Little Bit of Love" will inspire greater participation in 2006 World AIDS Day events on December 1, 2006.

Historically, HIV/AIDS awareness messages in Uganda take the form of posters, pamphlets, radio ads and dramatizations. MUWRP hopes that this new approach will grab Ugandans' attention and influence them to take precautions to decrease HIV infection. "Although music is a tool that can create positive change in society, it remains one of the least explored avenues of communication in HIV/AIDS campaigns," says Mutengu Kasirye.

Monica Millard, MUWRP Country Team Leader and Clinical Research Manager, added, "We hope that the release of the song and the video will promote HIV prevention. We also hope it will raise awareness of MUWRP's activities and, indirectly, promote the work of Ugandan musicians as they join the struggle against HIV."

Each of the more than 30 musicians involved generously donated their time to the effort. Aside from being a new approach to HIV prevention, the project is unique in the fact that all of the musicians united together. The Ugandan music scene, a market with limited resources, can be very competitive. "A Little Bit of Love" is unprecedented in that it brought together such a large and diverse array of local artists.

The idea for the effort was conceived after the 2005 Vaccine Awareness Day (VAD), where several local musicians volunteered to perform. Excited about the event, the musicians wanted to do more to help combat the HIV epidemic in Uganda. MUWRP decided to build upon this enthusiasm and commissioned a song aimed at preventing HIV transmission.

MUWRP approached artist management company DownTown Entertainment, which coordinated the musicians for the 2005 VAD event. DownTown Entertainment proprietor Denis Maganda worked with MUWRP to create the message. Maganda then approached successful audio producer Steve Jean, who collaborated with Silver Kyagulanyi on the lyrics, which are in both English and Luganda, the most widely spoken language in Uganda after English. The result is "A Little Bit of Love"—an upbeat tune with a serious message.

To shoot the video, production of which was managed by DownTown Entertainment, a major road was closed in downtown Kampala, the capital of Uganda. This prompted local TV and radio stations to inquire about the video and request the song's release. Two local stations aired segments on the filming of the video. Production costs were paid for with private funds through the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. The video and song lyrics are available at www.hivresearch.org.

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The Makerere University-Walter Reed Project (www.muwrp.org) is a non-governmental, non-profit HIV research program that was established in 2002 as a result of a memorandum of understanding between Makerere University and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF). The project's mission is to develop a safe and effective HIV vaccine specific to the HIV clades in Uganda. It is a collaborative effort with the U.S. Military HIV Research Program.

The U.S. Military HIV Research Program (www.hivresearch.org) was created to help prepare and protect service personnel from potential health challenges when deployed to HIV-endemic areas. The Program has become a worldwide leader in HIV research, working with many U.S. and international agencies, as well as a network of Department of Defense (DoD) overseas research laboratories. The Program is centered at the Division of Retrovirology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC).

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (www.hjf.org) is a private, not-for-profit organization that supports military medical research and education at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and throughout military medicine. It works collaboratively with the USMHRP—one of its largest programs—through a cooperative agreement with the USAMRMC.

The positions presented herein do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense or the United States Government.