Youth HIV awareness through Music in Zambia

UkaniManje's year in review! 

For 2022, we received accolades for our content, including our radio show that aired in 7 districts and reached youth across the country.  Additionally, our songs were embraced by the mainstream and were viewed and streamed more than a million times.  

We were recognized for nationwide awards, including:

• James Sakala won “Best Contribution to Public Health by an Artist/Artists” at the 2022 Zambian Medical Association awards ceremony for his work, including his UkaniManje song "Iyo"
• Chileshe Bwalya's song "Waiting" was nominated for a Kwacha award for the Best Gospel Song of the Year
• UkaniManje artists Abel Chungu and Wezi were both nominated for Kwacha awards as the "Humanitarian of the Year"
• Wezi's song "Moyo" was nominated for a Kwacha award as the "Most Conscious Song of the Year"
• UkaniManje artists Slap Dee and Chef 187 were both nominated for Kwacha awards for "Best Male Artist of the Year"
• UkaniManje artist Esther Chungu was nominated for a Kwacha award for "Best Female Artist of the Year"
• Our songs from our 2021 Album were streamed and played more than a million times, with our top song, Abel Chungu's "Ananisanka" receiving more than 300,000 views.
• As an additional gentle brag on our artists, Chef 187 featured on a song which was used in the "Wakanda Forever" trailer, an epic achievement for any artist.

Next Steps:

With your help, in 2023 we would like to continue creating new content and train a cohort of youth music ambassadors.

• With the proper funding, we will be able to hire a country manager who can manage partnership grants, outreach opportunities and facilitate trainings

We are excited by how far we have come and are looking forward to seeing how far we can go.  Please consider supporting us in this work.

Happy 2023, from all of us at UkaniManje!

Links:

• Our Website
• Our YouTube Channel
• Our Facebook Page

Dear Friend,

Thank you for helping us Wake Up Zambia with UkaniManje.

UkaniManje works to reach youth with invaluable, accurate, relatable and easily accessible health information about HIV so that youth can protect themselves and make healthy decisions.  

The World Health Organization estimates that while the world paid attention to COVID19- there were an additional 3 million people who became newly infected with HIV.

In Zambia, HIV remains the number 1 cause of death and youth need information to protect themselves. 

A New York Times article states:

"Progress against HIV has faltered, and global infections have held steady since 2018. In 2021.... people ages 15 to 24 years — and young women in particular — carried a disproportionate share of the burden. One new infection in an adolescent girl or young woman occurred every two minutes.... In sub-Saharan Africa, young people accounted for 31 percent of new infections, and nearly four in five of them were among girls and young women." 

Our songs have reached more than a million Zambian youth and two of our songs recently were nominated for the prestigious Kwacha Awards (Zambia's Grammy equivlant).  

 

We’ve done a lot, but we have so much more to do. Our next steps involve giving youth a platform to create their own music for HIV awareness  and training a cohort of youth artists and singers to be change agents in their own community. If you would like to continue to support us, you can do so here.

We will continue to “Wake Up” Zambia throughout 2022!   Join us!

 

Nototela (Thank you!),

Katy Weinberg

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UkaniManje, Executive Director

Links:

• Visit our Website!