Kami (Takalani Sesame character)


 * For alternate uses of Kami, see Kami (disambiguation). [[Image:Kami muppet.jpg|right|thumb|Kami poses with [[UNICEF]] executive director Carol Bellamy after being named UNICEF's Champion for Children in November 2003]]

Kami is a character on Takalani Sesame ("be happy Sesame" in Venda), which is the South African version of the children's television program Sesame Street.

In 2002, Sesame Workshop announced that an HIV-positive character would be introduced to Takalani Sesame, the South African version of the show. This idea was considered crucial for an area where AIDS is an epidemic. The HIV+ character's name, Kami, is derived from "Kamogelo", which means acceptance and/or welcome in Setswana. Kami is a furry yellow five-year-old HIV-positive girl muppet orphaned by AIDS. She confronts issues related to HIV-positive children in a way that three- to seven-year-olds may understand.

Kami was originally presented by Joel Schneider at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain in 2002. Media reports at that time gave many the impression that this character was proposed for the American version of the program. Some right-wing activist organizations such as the American Family Association vigorously opposed the idea stating:

For Sesame Street to have a character with HIV, which in this country at least most people connect with the homosexual community, is just another way of trying to normalize that lifestyle.

Even though Kami is an AIDS orphan in a country where more women are infected with HIV and heterosexual transmission of HIV is the major route of transmission, Republican congressmen Billy Tauzin, Chip Pickering, Fred Upton, Joe Barton, Richard Burr and Cliff Stearns also cautioned PBS against introducing similarly-affected Muppets to an American audience, reminding PBS that Congress could withhold funding.

In reality, however, the character's affliction has nothing to do with homosexuality. Her backstory is that she contracted the disease as the result of a tranfusion of tainted blood received as an infant. Her mother also died of HIV/AIDS and Kami illustrates to Takalani's viewers how to deal with loss and sad feelings.

Kami has appeared at the United Nations and at the World Bank and was interviewed by Katie Couric on NBC news. Kami has been named a UNICEF ambassador for children and has appeared in Takalani segments alongside Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, among others.