BELLARY: The media can play a pivotal role in creating awareness among people about HIV/AIDS, Jayakumar, Coordinator of the Bellary District AIDS Prevention Society (BDAPS), has said. He called upon field coordinators and managers engaged in preventing the spread of AIDS to make use of the media to reach out to the masses and to ensure that the infection rate comes down.

He was speaking here on Saturday at a daylong workshop on media advocacy for field coordinators and managers organised under the Coordinated HIV/AIDS Response through Capacity building and Awareness (CHARCA) project. The programme was organised with technical support from the Delhi-based Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR), at the Gadagi Chennappa IMA hall here. "Unless we realise the importance of the media and persuade it to partner with civil society in checking the spread of HIV/AIDS, we cannot succeed in creating a mass movement against the disease," Dr. Jayakumar said.

He urged field coordinators and managers to seek the help of the media to popularise the services being provided to those infected with HIV/AIDS at the Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres and the Anti Retro-Viral Therapy Centre set up at the Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences hospital here.

In addition, field coordinators and managers should also take the help of the media to eradicate the social stigma faced by HIV/AIDS patients and educate the masses to treat them with love and affection.

CHARCA, an UNDP-sponsored project being implemented in six districts across the country, including Bellary, aims at spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS among vulnerable groups, particularly young women.

Representatives from MYRADA and Mahila Samakhya participated in the workshop.

Prahalad, consultant, CHARCA, and representatives of various NGOs spoke.

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