Shuga Television Series

Filmed in Nairobi, Shuga is designed to be a hard-hitting TV drama series that aims to lift the lid on the reckless sex lives and loves of young Kenyans and their partners. The drama series consists of three concurrent but interlinked storylines, following the complicated sex lives of a group of 'cool' Kenyan students. One of the storylines is about Ayira, a modern girl who wants it all, including her long-time boyfriend and an older man. UNICEF and PEPFAR worked out the priority messages to get across to young people, which were about the dangers of having multiple sexual partners, the need to get tested for HIV, and stigma associated with being positive.

The show was designed to be sexy without being too explicit and to talk openly about sex. The producers were careful not to be too explicit: showing underwear rather than nudity, writhing rather than body parts. But many of the 85 broadcasters in more than 100 territories to whom MTV gave Shuga still opted for a slightly censored version. According to Georgia Arnold of MTV, Shuga works because young people identify with the characters. "They are great, sexy, passionate actors and actresses and people clicked with them. The aim was to make a really good drama that people would watch. There's always going to be a didactic element, but you can make it in a way that it seeps to the back of the brain".

Episodes, as well as behind the scenes video clips, can be downloaded on the MTV Ignite website.

See below for a short musical video with music by Nonini based on the Shuga series.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Johns Hopkins University, 60% of Kenyan youth had seen Shuga, knew the main messages, and could identify lessons to be learned. Almost 50% of groups of viewers interviewed talked about the characters and messages with close friends. They also talked about it with family and acquaintances, although only 15% talked about them with a partner. More than 90% of Kenyans and 50-60% of a panel of young Zambians said they believed the show had an impact on their thinking. Kenyan participants also said they were more likely to take an HIV test after watching Shuga.

Click here to download the full evaluation.

HIV/AIDS, Youth

Launched in 1998, Staying Alive is a multimedia global HIV and AIDS prevention campaign that challenges stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS as well as empowers young people to protect themselves from infection. The Emmy award-winning campaign consists of documentaries, public service announcements, youth forums, and web content. Staying Alive provides all its television programming rights-free and at no cost to third party broadcasters globally in order to get prevention messages out to the widest possible audience.