The overall goal of the campaign is to get men to reduce their number of partners, ideally to one. In order to achieve this, the One Love. Kwasila! campaign is designed to provide basic information about the risks posed by multiple concurrent partnerships (MCP), provoke thought and dialogue, and increase self-risk perception. The primary target audience of the campaign is married men aged 25 to 50 years. The secondary target audience is women aged 15 to 45 years (the wives and girlfriends of the primary target audience). The campaign will initially have an urban and peri-urban focus as HIV prevalence in these areas tends to be much higher than in rural areas.

The centerpiece of the campaign is a Zambian produced 10-part television edutainment miniseries called Club Risky Business, produced by Media 365, a local Zambian media house. It looks at how MCP is a major factor in spreading HIV in Zambia with each story showing the audience a different side of what drives MCP. David (the central character) uses his wealth to attract women and frequently exchanges gifts in exchange for favours. Sachi thinks that he is safe because he only has ‘one’ other partner besides his wife, and Charlie Lucky has multiple sexual partners but maintains that he is safe because he always uses condoms. The story is anchored around the local bar (Risky Business), that all three frequent and through their conversations the series explores the various social, cultural, and gender dynamics surrounding MCP, the riskiness of the sexual network, and the idea that a lifelong relationship can be happy and fulfilling. Club Risky Business is broadcast on the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The miniseries will be complemented by other multimedia elements of the campaign including animated television spots, radio spots, an sms competition, radio and television talk shows, a radio drama series, a feature length film, print materials, and counselling aids for health providers.

The campaign also has a One Love. Kwasila! website which offers, amongst other things, information about the Club Risky Business series, an HIV Risk Calculator, a list of VCT Centres, and information, blogs and articles related to HIV prevention.

HIV/AIDS

In Zambia the national HIV prevalence amongst 15 to 49 year old Zambian adults is 14.3 per cent and MCP has been found to be a principal driver of HIV infection in Zambia. As a social phenomenon, MCP relates to having more than one recurrent sexual partner at a time. If a number of individuals in a community are involved in MCP relationships, a web is created. This network allows for the easy spread of the disease, fuelling the epidemic. One of the main reasons for this can be found in the way the HIV virus reproduces. When someone is initially infected with HIV, a surge of the virus is experienced in the infected individual for between three to six weeks, yet current testing methods will find no traces of the disease during this ‘window period’. The rapid growth and intensity of the HIV viral load makes it easy at this time to pass the virus from one individual to another, through the exchange of bodily fluids such as blood or semen. If this individual is involved in a network of sexually active, unprotected people, the disease can then spread like wildfire.