The Welsh National Opera has announced that it will release an original community song-cycle that explores the experience of living with HIV in 2021.

The Three Letters project assembles students from Cardiff West Community High School, writer and activist Mercy Shibemba, composer Michael Betteridge and singer Siân Cameron for an original song “We Learn, We Know, We Understand.”

The project draws inspiration from the Aids Quilt Songbook project which began in America in 1992, and aims to raise public awareness about realities of living with HIV via creation of new cycles of songs.

The project kicked off in September with a workshop including over 160 students at Cardiff West Community High School. Among the participants and mentors was playwright and actor Nathaniel J Hall and representatives from Fast Track Cardiff.

The song will be released on the Welsh National Opera’s website on Dec. 1, 2021, which is a World Aids Day.