A total of 117 young people from 12 African countries submitted entries in the second edition of the script-writing competition Youth Movies for Life & for Love that was launched by AJAN on World AIDS Day 2013.

The competition invited young people, who attend Catholic schools and other educational institutions across sub-Saharan Africa, to submit film scripts with HIV prevention messages. The aim: to increase awareness by producing DVDs of mini-films based on the winning scripts.

The scripts came from 30 schools and educational institutions in Benin, Burundi, CAR, Chad, DRC, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe, with the highest number of schools coming from Kenya.

Participants must come up with an original idea for a film that is five to ten minutes long. The idea must revolve around a message about how young people can respond to the challenges posed by HIV, how they can adopt life-giving values or lifestyles, and how they can steer clear of sexually transmitted infections.

In 2010, AJAN held a first edition of the competition that was open only to Jesuit educational institutions. Twenty winners were selected. The success of the competition, and of the films produced, encouraged AJAN to hold a second one and to extend participation to other Catholic institutions too; this time 30 winners will be chosen and adapted by professionals into films that will be screened across Africa.