most likely, you just need to set the character set to be used for the Database connection.
in the database connections file, add the following code at the end:
<?php if (!function_exists('mysql_set_charset')) {
function mysql_set_charset($charset, $link_identifier = null)
{
if ($link_identifier == null) {
return mysql_query('SET NAMES "'.$charset.'"');
} else {
return mysql_query('SET NAMES "'.$charset.'"', $link_identifier);
}
}
}
mysql_set_charset('utf8',$<yourConnectionName>);
?>
where <yourConnectionName> is the name of your connection file.