‘The story of BOBO’ exists of two animations, both translated into English and French. ‘Be HIV free’ tells the story of how the hiv virus works inside the body in a simple and colourful way. The follow up ‘Be AWARE take CARE’ shows what happens inside your body when you do not take your medication (ARV’s) on time, and therefore how important it is to faithfully take the medication. The idea for this film arose as a result of the many questions raised about the HIV virus by both children and adults who played the game LOVE check. The animated film is made especially for children in the southern part of Africa and children in Holland with African and Caribbean backgrounds. However, after a short test period the game turned out to be suitable for more diverse demographics as well as other cultures. Meanwhile these two animations, each of around 8 minutes, wrapped in a colourful cover designed by Daniëlle Schaffelaars, along with a quiz, are distributed on a large scale in Southern Africa, in the Netherlands and other countries. And it appears it is of great possible interest to many more countries.

The first animation “Be HIV free” was created by Aljen Hoekstra, Joost Lieuwma,WipVernooij, Bento Kassies, Gerrit Elbrink, Bastiaan Swager en Marcel Smetsers, seven students at the Utrecht School of Arts Academy in the Art Media and Technology department in Hilversum, under supervision of several specialists, like Linda van der Knaap, HIV nurse of the Erasmus Medisch Centrum in Rotterdam, Christien Broecheler, informer public health, especially to people with a different cultural background and Gosia Grubba en Cynthia Jordan, both filmspecialists. The internationally renowned Suzanna Lobrano submitted a short song especially for the film. The animation was financed by Abboot B.V. and the AIDS Fonds De animatie werd gefinancierd door Abbott B.V. en het Aids Fonds.

The second animation ‘Be AWARE, take CARE’ was made by four of the now graduated students that also made the animation ‘Be HIV free’: Aljen, Joost, Bento and Bastiaan. Content wise the team was assisted by the WEB.foundation and Hugo Tempelman, a Dutch doctor who has been working in South-Africa for over 10 years. He has founded a clinic and countless projects and he does a lot of research. All of the projects are related to hiv/aids. The charity branche of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group financed the whole animation project with a first issue of 11.000 copies.

View 'Be HIV free' (just for windows)

View 'Be AWARE, take CARE (just for windows)

View the speech of Richard Branson (just for windows)