Revolutionary – Educational – Developmental (RED) Trust is a not-for-profit association that was founded and registered in 2011 to create positive influence in Malawi through urban music and urban subculture. The project intends to create positive awareness on HIV/AIDS and other issues affecting the youth through the creation of ‘trends’ that the youth automatically follow. RED is more than just music. It’s an entire subculture. The main idea is to get dozens of top urban music artists in the country endorsing the HIV/AIDS prevention, then record several songs with the RED theme and produce RED apparel, ranging from t-shirts to armbands. After doing so, attach RED to songs, albums, launches and concerts by RED-label artists. If you combine all these figures and have them all endorse and support RED, then, very quickly, hundreds of thousands of young people in Malawi will automatically follow suit, because you combine the fans of individual artists and change them into the fans of a whole group, the RED group.
The RED concept can be applied to almost any important issue in Malawi. Currently, millions are spent every month on HIV/AIDS awareness in the country, particularly targeting young people who may be blindly involving themselves in promiscuity unaware of the realistic dangers. Things you see on posters, hear about in radio, see on television. People know they exist but rarely ever think it could happen to them. It’s happening all around us. We always expect that the ‘scandal’ will occur in the next family. You never really expect your own daughter to get pregnant at sixteen. This is where the key difference with RED is. Music tells a story that people can connect to, and if the story is positive, people who listen to it will be influenced positively. With a poster, you make a person see with their eyes. With a song, you make a person see with their heart.