MTV Shuga returns with TV series on sex education, HIV awareness for Nigerian youths
As part of the continuous drive to curb the spread of HIV and create awareness for sex education, the MTV Staying Alive Foundation has announced the return of TV series, MTV Shuga to Nigeria for its 6th and 7th season.
The award-winning TV drama on family planning, sex education, urban youth culture and relationships will be produced and filmed in Nigeria for the third time.
Actors Sharon Ezeamaka, Timini Egbuson and Jemima Osunde return as cast for the new seasons.
MTV Shuga has, since its launch in 2009, been aired in over 61 countries across the world, showing on more than 179 channels and reaching over 720 million households.
It is part of a powerful 360-degree mass media campaign designed to raise awareness about HIV prevention and teenage pregnancy in Africa, with an evaluation released last year by the World Bank highlighting the positive impact that MTV Shuga has on young people’s attitudes, behaviours and health.
The World Bank study found that after six months of watching MTV Shuga, Nigerian viewers were more than twice as likely to go to centers to get tested; and that the rate of girls with chlamydia who watched MTV Shuga was 58% lower than those who didn’t; season 6 will be hoping to realise similarly impressive results.
The series will see the action move to Lagos, Kaduna and Kano, and will premiere on MTV Base, other MTV networks and third party broadcasters around the world.
With a particular focus on adolescent girls and their vulnerability to HIV infection and unintended pregnancy, MTV Shuga seasons 6 and 7 are set to continue to highlight issues affecting young people.
The Executive Director of the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, Georgia Arnold, said at the launch: “Empowering young people to understand their choices for their own bodies has always been one of our major objectives. MTV Shuga highlights the many societal, economic and health challenges faced by young people in our society – from lack of basic sex education to peer pressure and intimate partner violence.
By highlighting the sacrifices young people make, and the hurdles they have to overcome, we hope to encourage them to take control of their lives and bodies by helping them to make more informed choices about their sexual health and contraception.”
Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Africa, Alex Okosi added.
“MTV Shuga is a trailblazing edutainment property that has a real world impact and has changed lives by making viewers reflect on their life choices. We are creating something that the people not only want to watch but what they will also want to identify with. It is exciting to bring back MTV Shuga to Nigeria a second time and we look forward to working together with all the amazing cast and crew.”
MTV Shuga is the brainchild of the MTV Staying Alive Foundation and is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and MTV Base Africa.
