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In partnership with international development agency Christian Aid, a Focusrite-sponsored team recently produced an album of songs and two innovative video animations to promote HIV awareness and education in Sierra Leone.
The songs, written and performed by members of the Methodist Youth Resource Centre in Bo, Sierra Leone, tackle the issues of stigma and HIV awareness, and have been a hit with radio stations across the country.

The album, which took six weeks to record and a further six weeks back in London to arrange and produce, features 12 tracks in a mixture of English and local dialects. They take their inspiration from a range of music, from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, and share infectious rhythms and uplifting lyrics.

Focusrite supported the project by supplying a Saffire Pro 10 I/O. Co-producer of the album Joe Herrmann describes the setup: “the clarity of the converters on the Saffire was extraordinary. We used it in a chain with a Focusrite Liquid Mix and a TC Powercore, plus the hard drives, with the Saffire pro connected directly to a Powerbook G4 1.5 GHz running logic 7.1. Initially we were a bit nervous about such a complicated chain, but it held up fine. We usually had one instrument connected to the DI input and 6 microphones using 2 different monitor mixes on headphones and live monitors… but we had to remain flexible. We set up a recording room in what was essentially a cupboard, our main vocal mic was damaged – we think by atmospheric humidity, believe it or not – and mains current in Bo is unreliable, to say the least. We bought a voltage stabiliser as soon as we realised – we had at least one power malfunction that nearly blew everything up!”

Sierra Leone has 48,000 people living with HIV, and this project was associated with a network of local partner organisations working on issues such as stigma, discrimination, health education, behaviour counselling, support and care, voluntary testing, income generation and preventing mother-to-baby transmission of HIV.

Mark Nunn, co-producer of the album, said: ‘To date we have produced 1600 CDs, which have been distributed to radio stations, local NGOs, schools, churches and the National AIDS Secretariat of Sierra Leone. The project is very popular – the CD was launched at the beginning of 2008 and has reached thousands of people in Sierra Leone so far, through the efforts of local organisations as well as radio and TV. At the moment we are trying to secure funding and sponsorship – whether financial or kind, like how Focusrite helped us by providing the Saffire PRO for Sierra Leone – to repeat it in other countries where there is similar work taking place on HIV education. If we do get funding, the next planned project will be in Democratic Republic of Congo, then hopefully Zambia or Mozambique after that.’

To listen to the songs, visit www.myspace.com/hivsierraleone
To view the animations, visit www.hivsierraleone.co.uk