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Travis joins a host of celebrities including Kelly Rowland (Ambassadorsince 2008), Beyonce, Mary J Blige, Justin Timberlake and Diddy, who have alllent their names over the past ten years, to raise the profile of StayingAlive -- MTV's global campaign dedicated to HIV and AIDS issues. As 2009Ambassador, Travis becomes the first male face of the Foundation.
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Commented Bill Roedy, Chairman and CEO of MTVNI and Chair of The StayingAlive Foundation Board of Directors, "As Staying Alive reaches ten years, weare happy to have Travis on board as Ambassador. He has a strong connectionwith young people, especially young males, and will have a profound impact asa role model for them. His mandate will be to speak to them about prevention,stigma and respect."
Said Travis McCoy, "I've been that young naive boy, running around, notcaring, wanting to have sex ... I can definitely relate to the young guys outthere now who are thinking about sex and having sex ... I want to try and be apositive influence on them, talk to them about respecting themselves,protecting themselves and the girls and women around them. Staying Alive hasdone amazing work over the last ten years and I am really excited to be partof it all. It's really important that we just keep talking about it."
Travis' new role as ambassador will be to carry on the legacy of StayingAlive and Kelly Rowland's dedicated efforts as ambassador. In this new role,Travis will use his inimitable style to encourage, energize, and empower youngpeople who are involved in HIV/AIDS awareness, education and preventioncampaigns as well as help tackle the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS bytalking openly about HIV and safe sex to MTV's audience.
Staying Alive uses three core initiatives to fulfill its overall missionof empowering young people to protect themselves and their peers from HIV andAIDS -- the television campaign, the grant-making Foundation and its newlyrevamped online platform.
To celebrate its first decade, 'Staying Alive' has launched a series ofnew initiatives which will leverage on these core approaches -- through on airprogramming, by grant-giving, with thirty new grants announced today andthrough aggregating all its content onto its new portal --www.staying-alive.org.
On December 1st, three new programs will be aired, amongst them 'The Diaryof Kelly Rowland,' an hour-long documentary chronicling the star's first-handexperiences with young people affected by HIV/AIDS throughout her journeyacross Africa and beyond, in her role as Ambassador. Kelly herself gets testedfor HIV in Kenya, in an attempt to break down the stigmas associated with thetopic of HIV/AIDS, and to encourage young people globally to know theirstatus. 'The Diary of Kelly Rowland' will be airing across all MTV channelsincluding an additional 100 broadcasters.
In addition, thirty new grants will be given to projects led by youngpeople who are fulfilling the Foundation's mission to educate and inform theirpeers in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The grants, which start from December 1stand run for the duration of a year, have been made possible through thesupport of The Body Shop and MTV's "Move Your Lips" campaign, which raised atotal of $1.25 million.
"The foundation is privileged to be able to work with our young granteeswho lead the way with their mission to break taboos, foster tolerance andspread the mission of protection. Our role is to support these inspirationalvoices and help ensure their sustainability in the future," added Roedy.
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
Travis McCoy made his MTV debut in the Summer of 2002 on the show DirectEffect in a nationwide MC battle. With Gym Class Heroes, he has made a numberof albums, with the most recent, "The Quilt" being released in September 2008and containing the hit 'Cookie Jar.' McCoy also collaborated recently withKelly Rowland on the track 'Daylight,' a single from her hugely successful Ms.Kelly album.
Grants
The Foundation received a record number 735 applications from 86 countriesfor this round of awards, a rise of more than 80% compared to the last roundin June. In addition to re-visiting now established schemes, for the firsttime, The Staying Alive Foundation will be supporting projects in Benin,Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Laos, Nepal, Peru, Somalia andTogo. The latest round of awards brings the total number of grants given bythe Foundation to date to 130, covering 101 different projects in 48countries, amounting to over $1 million.
Grant Criteria
Awards are made to individual young people and small youth-led initiativesthat:
1. Educate and/or give out responsible and accurate information about HIVand AIDS targeted at young people within their communities.
2. Eliminate or alleviate the stigma and discrimination associated withHIV and AIDS.
3. Encourage young people to take concrete action to protect themselvesfrom HIV infection.
4. Demonstrate innovation and creativity.
5. Reflect and honor the culture in which the project operates.
-- All Staying Alive Award winners must demonstrate credibility throughindependent references, government accreditation (if you have any), andverifiable banking and accounting systems.
-- All Staying Alive award winners must agree to allow SAF and MTV topromote and publicize their projects. We will use compelling award winnerstories to inspire other young people.
Website
The Staying Alive portal (www.staying-alive.org) offers a one stop shopfor anyone wanting information about HIV/AIDS and safe sex. The new-lookportal utilizes existing social networks and micro blogging platforms such asTwitter to further raise awareness, as well as featuring exclusive artistinterviews with the likes of P!nk, Katy Perry and Dido to encourage positivechange. www.staying-alive.org will also carry all new video content, includingthe Kelly Rowland diary, sex uncovered and xpress as well as exclusiveonline-only footage. Finally, an entirely new-look Foundation site willfeature extensive profiles of grant winners, information about previous andexisting partnerships and more.
*** MTV Staying Alive: The Diary of Kelly Rowland ***
1-hour documentary -- To view the full documentary, please visit:http://www.mtvinternationalpress.com/pro_social/exclusive_kelly_rowland/
*** MTV Staying Alive: Not to Me ***
1-hour short film -- focusing on HIV risk across the Caribbean
Marks the long-form directorial debut of Ras Kassa [acclaimed music videodirector -- Welcome to Jamrock, Beanie Man's Dude (remix), and Sean Paul'sNever Gonna Be the Same]
*** MTV Staying Alive: XPRESS 2008 ***
1-hour documentary -- Shot in Brazil, Dominican Republic, Colombia and theUSA that gives young people back the microphone on issues that affect them.
Individual Campaigns
In addition to the programming produced for MTV Staying Alive's 10thanniversary and World AIDS Day, the campaign has been involved in a series ofother initiatives. A new campaign, Telling It Like It Is(www.tellingitlikeitis.tv) has launched with Spinvox, which continues toopenly and frankly discuss sex and safe sex issues with young people. Inaddition, a series of specially-created shorts have been commissioned byStaying Alive and Spinvox from the creators of Fur TV which premiered duringthe 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards. Staying Alive has also linked with theM.A.C. AIDS Fund and Rolls Royce on fundraising initiatives, with money raisedgoing to continue to support young people around the world in their pioneeringwork in raising awareness of HIV and AIDS within their communities.
A DEDICATED PRESS WEBSITE WITH MORE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE ATdrop.io/mtvinternational password: mtvpress
ABOUT THE MTV STAYING ALIVE CAMPAIGN
Launched in 1998, Staying Alive is the world's largest multimedia globalHIV and AIDS prevention campaign that challenges stigma and discriminationassociated with HIV and AIDS as well as empowers young people to protectthemselves from infection. The Emmy award-winning campaign consists ofdocumentaries, public service announcements, youth forums and Web content.Staying Alive provides all its television programming rights-free and at nocost to third party broadcasters globally to get crucial prevention messagesout to the widest possible audience. The Staying Alive campaign is apartnership between MTV Networks International, the Kaiser Family Foundation,UNAIDS, UNFPA, and UNICEF among others. More information about Staying Alivecan be found at www.staying-alive.org. MTV Networks International is also anactive member of the United Nations-supported Global Media AIDS Initiative(GMAI).
ABOUT THE MTV STAYING ALIVE FOUNDATION
Founded in 2005, The MTV Staying Alive Foundation is a global publiccharity operating in affiliation with MTV Networks International. Its missionis to empower and support young people who are protecting themselves and theircommunities against HIV and AIDS. The Foundation donates money and providesgrants to youth-led initiatives committed to educating their peers about HIVand AIDS. It is dedicated to fighting stigma and discrimination and empoweringyoung people to protect themselves against the disease. Multi Platform sellingartist and founder member of the greatest female group of all time in thehistory of music, Destiny's Child, Kelly Rowland, is Staying Alive FoundationAmbassador. For more information log onto www.staying-alive.org/foundation.
About MTV Networks International
MTV Networks International includes the premier multimedia entertainmentbrands MTV: Music Television, VH1, Nickelodeon, TMF (The Music Factory), VIVA,Flux, Paramount Comedy, Comedy Central, Game One, Neopets, GameTrailers,Shockwave, Addicting Games, Atom Films and Xfire. MTV Networks' brands areseen globally in 561 million households in 162 countries and 33 languages via170 locally programmed and operated TV channels and more than 350 digitalmedia properties. The company's diverse holdings also include interests intelevision syndication, digital media, publishing, home video, radio, recordedmusic, licensing & merchandising and two feature film divisions, MTV Films andNickelodeon Movies. MTV Networks is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).Programming MTV programming around World AIDS Day includes:
SOURCE MTV Networks International
