The Hindu : Front Page : India's response to AIDS campaign encouraging, says Richard Gere

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 16, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

India's response to AIDS campaign encouraging, says Richard Gere

Aarti Dhar

TORONTO: It is celebrities galore at the XVI International AIDS Conference with the world's most rich and powerful pouring in to associate themselves with the anti-AIDS campaign.

Be it the former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, or Microsoft chief Bill Gates or Hollywood star Richard Gere, they all made their presence felt at the weeklong conference. While Melinda and Bill Gates of the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation were the star attractions at the inaugural function on Sunday, the two Bills — Clinton and Gates — stole the show on Monday as they jointly addressed a huge gathering.

"The urgent need to stem the tide of new infections is being undermined by the fact that few people know about their HIV status and are unwittingly spreading the disease," Mr. Clinton said. "I don't see how we are going to catch up unless people are at least aware that they could be giving the virus to other people."

Mr. Gates said the scale up of programmes to deliver urgently needed AIDS drugs to poorer countries "does start to change the dialogue." In his travels to affected countries discussing behaviours that spread of the virus — unprotected sex and injected drug use — was an awkward encounter. "I have not come to a country where injected drug use, or men having sex with men or commercial sex workers, is easily discussed," he said.

Ms. Gates stressed on the need for empowering women to protect themselves.

Celebrity participation

Talking about his Indian experience in dealing with the AIDS campaign, Mr. Gere said the response had been positive, particularly from the celebrities who could connect to the people.

He spoke about the lead that superstar Amitabh Bachchan had taken in initiating the anti-AIDS campaign last year under the aegis of Avahan and Kaiser Foundation. Other popular actors such as Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Chiranjeevi had also extended support to the cause.

Mr. Gere, a frequent visitor to India, had also asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to organise a meeting of media barons in the country to seek their support for the cause. "I am glad to say that the Prime Minister sat through the whole meeting and the media has been supportive since then," he added.

Former basketball star and Sports Show host John Salley, too, was here to launch the `Hope Spreads Faster than AIDS' campaign of The Global Fund.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page