WHEREAS, Sesame Workshop and “Sesame Street” were created in 1968, debuted on November 10, 1969, and was designed to use the medium of television to reach and teach preschoolers and give them skills that would provide a successful transition from home to school. The show gives children a head start and provides them with enough confidence to begin learning the alphabet, numbers, and pro-social skills; and

WHEREAS, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization that produces the award-winning, long-running children’s television show “Sesame Street” had announced that it will introduce an HIV-positive Muppet character to the cast of its South African program on September 30, 2002; and

WHEREAS, The goal in introducing an HIV-positive Muppet character in South Africa’s “Takalani Sesame” is to help de-stigmatize the disease, promote age and culturally appropriate discussion about HIV/AIDS, and “model positive behavior” toward persons of all ages living with HIV/AIDS, among the young viewers of the program; and

WHEREAS, The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reported that an estimated 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS today, including almost 3 million children under age 15; and

WHEREAS, More than 14 million children worldwide currently under age 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, with the number expected to jump to more than 25 million by 2010; and

WHEREAS, Of the 14 million children orphaned or seriously impacted by HIV/AIDS, 11 million of these children are in sub-Saharan Africa; and

WHEREAS, The United States of America has an estimated 900,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, with women and children under 14 accounting for 190,000 of these infections; now, therefore, be it