Ideas can make a big difference, even if they’re in faraway places. In the Nkomazi region, many creative activists already know that. It’s small, a rural area of South African—the nearest city is Johannesburg is more than a five-hour drive—where 40% of the adult population lives with HIV.

The album Marula’s Shade: The ImprovED Album(Special online release: September 1, 2013; retail release: September 19, 2013; available for download via www.triadtrust.org) wants to help bring about those changes. Music has power. Music can move people. And that’s what the songs on the album do.

Sung and co-written by the young artist-educators of the ImprovED program in the Nkomazi region, it’s music that comes directly from them, lyrics that can help educate and empower their peers and stop another generation being lost to AIDS. ImprovED is run by the Boston-based TRIAD Trust, which supports local facilitators to create and lead arts- and sports-based youth education programs designed stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. TRIAD encourages local activists—the people who know better than anyone how to engage with and work in their own communities—by providing training and support for local projects. Marula’s Shadecaptures the sound of these striking efforts, created by those activists, to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS among local youth.

Now supporters in the U.S. will get a chance to support TRIAD’s work, by purchasing the album and by attending celebrations of the project in New York (September 19), Los Angeles (TBA), and Boston (TBA).

Take a listen:

1)Marula's Shade

2)Money For Love