Maputo — A multimedia mobile unit is now on the road in the northern Mozambican province of Niassa with the task of making communities aware of AIDS and how to prevent the disease,

According to a press release from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the vehicle was provided by the Niassa Cotton Company (SAN), which is part of the Portuguese Joao Ferreira dos Santos (JFS) group.

It is equipped with a computerised video and sound amplification system that was provided by the Association of Business People against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (ECOSIDA), and by the National Aids Council (CNCS).

The crew of the mobile unit hopes to promote healthy attitudes, by involving communities in interactive debates, and providing pertinent information on HIV/AIDS and more general issues of health, education and child protection.

ECOSIDA has trained a group of local activists to operate the equipment and to act as peer educators among the communities.

"The use of mobile multimedia units in several other parts of the country has proved a powerful and efficient means of reaching remote communities, with low levels of schooling, and of access to audio-visual means of communication", said the release. "It helps them acquire more knowledge, promote dialogue and seek solutions for their own development". This form of fighting AIDS results from a "public-private partnership" established in June between SAN/JFS, ECOSIDA, the CNCS and UNICEF, and falls within a UNICEF strategy for the increasing involvement of private business in programmes to benefit women and children.

The project seeks to use the existing SAN/JFS network in the rural communities, through which about 100,000 peasant producers sell their raw cotton to SAN.