Former America’s Next Top Model Contestant Nnenna Agba puts AIDS prevention on the catwalk
With her striking beauty and almost supernatural calm, Nnenna Agba stunned audiences in the 2006 season of the CW’s hit program America’s Next Top Model. But her
Hardy Jimbes and Nnenna
experience on the show was more than fashion, flair and flashbulbs. After she and another contestant filmed a public service announcement about HIV and AIDS, Nnenna was inspired to become more involved in fighting the disease—from which, she says, she had felt very “distant.”
Nnenna (pronounced NEH-nah) was eliminated from the show after making the top six, and then began working with Hardy Jimbes, founder and president of Save Africa Concert Foundation for AIDS Relief (SAC-AIDS), a nonprofit group that uses entertainment to raise HIV/AIDS awareness in the United States and Africa. Born in Houston and raised in Nigeria, Nnenna has served as a spokesperson to the organization, lending her voice to its mission of raising awareness and encouraging individuals in the States and Africa to learn their HIV status. POZ sat down with Jimbes and Nnenna—and felt terribly underdressed.
POZ: Mr. Jimbes, when and why did you decide to create SAC-AIDS?
I have been involved with the entertainment business for a long time—I have two albums—and I was looking for a way to connect [HIV/AIDS] to the entertainment business. The organization was founded in 1999. We do programs in inner cities [in the U.S.] and in Africa. We get comedians, [musicians]—anyone we think the kids look up to—and then while they’re together, we have professionals come and talk to them [about HIV].
Nnenna, can you talk about your experience on America’s Next Top Model and how that led to your involvement with SAC-AIDS?
I had a chance to do a public service announcement on HIV/AIDS during the [show]. I was pretty disconnected from information on HIV before that. I was given a sheet of paper of facts about the virus that I was supposed to memorize and deliver the lines for the commercial. But while I was doing the commercial, I was actually thinking ‘this is reality.’ Half of all newly infected [people] are women, and one out of four people with HIV/AIDS doesn’t know it. After the show was over, I moved to New York and I talked to different people about how I could get involved. I started working with SAC-AIDS. Over the last few years I’ve worked as a spokesperson, I’ve attended all their community events and spoken on their behalf, both here and in Africa.
Why are celebrities key to the organization’s mission of spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS?
Jimbes: I know how it is to have fans; they truly have so much respect [for artists] and if they tell them something, they will listen. For instance, if you bring Puff Daddy to talk to the kids in school here, they will listen to him before they listen to George Bush; there’s that powerful connection there. That’s why we should be trying to get a lot of celebrities artists involved in this because their voices are very powerful.
Nnenna: The media is the most powerful outlet for information, and celebrities and entertainers are most in the spotlight and they have access to the media. I think they can use [those] outlets to inform people, children, their fans, everybody.
What are the differences in the challenges involved in raising HIV/AIDS awareness in the U.S. and in Africa?
Jimbes: In Africa, we’re dealing with poverty, too. There is no money. There are some rural areas that we believe people really need to focus on because there is not enough information there. There are a lot of people doing great work, but we need to do more.
Click the videos to watch the remainder of the interview, as Nnenna and Hardy Jimbes speak about stigma, prevention and misconceptions about HIV.
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comments 1 - 2 (of 2 total)
Sylvia G. McIntyre, Shreveport, 2008-06-25 13:44:28
I think this was a real good conversation, one that we need more of if we are going to slow down the spread of HIV/AIDS. I wish we could have such celebrities or concerts in our hometown, here in the big city of Shreveport, Louisiana. We got a long way to go in fighting this disease and a lot of obstacles to overcome, but with us all sticking together we can make a differences. We all need to come together, North, South, East, & west, lets keep making a difference. Plese let me hear from you
Jerry Robbins, Saint Petersburg, 2008-06-20 14:16:03
Way to go Baby
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
