Guyana credits a U.S.-funded AIDS prevention program for shrinking its HIV infection rate from about 3 percent to nearly 1 percent, The Associated Press reports. The $20 million public awareness and prevention program was launched five years ago in the South American country.

Some of the funds went to nongovernmental organizations that produced plays that warned of dangers of high-risk sexual behavior and the effects of AIDS. Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy said the program led by the U.S. Agency for Internal Development “is a huge success story.”