Beyond the ABC Campaign: How TeachAids Rebuilt HIV Education

Abstract

The founding of TeachAids, spearheaded by Dr. Piya Sorcar at Stanford University, hinges on the recognition that there is a real break in the chain linking HIV/AIDS awareness and understanding, which has been costing people’s lives for years. Rather than funding more billboards that would lead to deleterious gaps in people’s understanding, the organization sought to explain HIV from first biological principles in ways that were culturally safe. Today its animated series Prevention Begins With Me exists in 27 languages, features voices from celebrities such as Shabana Azmi and Shruti Haasan, and has been used across the globe, from Indian army barracks to Kenyan schools without electricity.