Passion! Drama! Heartache! Daytime dramas veered toward Africa on September 26, when all nine major network soaps started mixing African AIDS orphans into storylines as part of Daytime Unites for Africa (DUA), which runs until November 28. “The Bold and the Beautiful brought back a character who had adopted an African AIDS orphan,” says Sofia Landon Geier, a Days of Our Lives writer who created DUA after her 11-year-old daughter, who’d been saving money for African AIDS orphans, was fatally struck by a car. “Studies have shown that soap operas are a really effective way to reach people because of their intimacy,” says Lynn Leahey, editor in chief of Soap Opera Digest. “Mentioning it on every single show is a very good idea.”