DASHES OF COLOUR: Painting carrying an anti-AIDS message for mothers.

HYDERABAD: A dash of art is adding an aesthetic stroke to the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign in the city.

The Bill Clinton Centre for AIDS Research and Education's (B'Care) campaign titled `A Beautiful Struggle: The 1,000 Word Project' took off in the city on Sunday with artistic flair in the form of a mural painting by Canada-based muralist Javid Alibhai. The painting carries an anti-HIV message too, cautioning would-be mothers to stay away from the clutches of the virus.

Though the venue, Osmania General Hospital (OGH), is quite an unlikely place for art-lovers to come and gaze admiringly at the work, B'Care director Surya Prakash Makarla believes OGH is the right place to start off the campaign, which is part of the United Nation's global `Arts for Social Change' initiative, since several people who are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS depend on such State-run hospices for treatment.

Osmania mural

The Osmania mural, which depicts two mothers feeding their babies, one with breast milk and the other, with a bottle, uses abstract aesthetic dashes of colour to emphasize the necessity of breastfeeding infants as opposed to bottle-feeding as well. Touching the sentiment of motherhood, Alibhai also wants to convey the message that unless mothers are free of HIV, breastfeeding is impossible.

"This is the only mural representing India in the `Beautiful Struggle' campaign and only the second in the sub-continent. The other one is being produced at the Ali Institute of Education in Lahore, Pakistan," says Dr. Surya Prakash. The Beautiful Struggle will have mural paintings from across the world, which will be compiled with 1,000-word essays describing each of the paintings and released by this year-end.

Suicide

Incidentally, it was at OGH that a 24-year-old HIV-positive woman, who poisoned her five-year-old child while attempting suicide, died on Friday. With such incidents on the rise, hospital officials believe the mural could add verve to the efforts to educate people on anti-HIV measures.

"It will serve to educate not only pregnant women, but the general public as well," remarks OGH Superintendent V. Ashok Kumar, while appreciating the use of art to combat HIV.

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