SOUTH AFRICA’S Sesame Street community welcomed a fluffy 5-year-old orphan living with HIV Tuesday in the government’s latest effort to stem the AIDS pandemic ravaging the country and the continent.

　　Education Minister Kader Asmal was the first outsider to hug Kami, a lively bear-like Muppet with a passion for nature, after her public debut at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital, the only one in the country offering drug therapy for children with AIDS.

　　Guests saw a snippet of the first show in which Kami is invited to join the familiar Sesame Street characters at play.

　　“You’re beautiful,” says Zikwe, the big, blue, gravely voiced kingpin of the show.

　　Asmal said the character, rejected last year as a member of the original U.S. Sesame Street community, would join the local Takalani Sesame from Sept. 30 to help children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS to understand the disease.

　　Takalani means “be happy” in the local Venda language and Kami’s name is derived from the Tswana word for “acceptance.”

　　Sesame Street is a pre-school television show based on the popular Muppet series and designed to help children prepare for school.  (SD-Agencies)