Feature story

Prevention Revolution

09 November 2010

This is the third of five animated films for the social media initiative “HIV #PreventionRevolution”, that UNAIDS is running in the lead up to World AIDS Day 2010.

The aim is to inspire and encourage people using social media to know more about HIV prevention. The collective goal is to make the hashtag #PreventionRevolution shared as much as possible on 1 December 2010.

For the past two weeks, conversations have focused on why an HIV prevention revolution is needed and condom programming, under key messages such as “80% of HIV transmission is sexual” and “More than 7 000 people are infected with HIV everyday”.

It has connected tweeters such as @UN, @MTVStayingAlive, @Oxfam and @AnnieLennox

Most importantly the conversation has engaged twitter users from all walks of life; all tweeting about the Prevention Revolution at the same time across at least five continents!

People on twitter have shared personal stories, called out for action on local level and the tweets seem to be sharing information that users did not previously have. For example:

@LoganLevkoff, tweeted: “Unacceptable,” in reply to the fact that only 1 in 3 young people have knowledge of how HIV is transmitted.

@0newinfections, a person on twitter living with HIV who uses twitter, urged his followers to join the conversation:  

“I often wonder how long will i live. I became HIV positive when i was 25. Maybe 10 years more or 20? Be a part of the #PreventionRevolution

Users have also come up with a new word on twitter “Edutweeting,” made from Education and Tweeting for what the initiative is trying to achieve.

This week’s discussion starter is the animated film Light, embedded above. Follow the conversation on twitter here and by visiting UNAIDS on Facebook.