The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Adding a dash of nutrition to their lives

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 18, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Adding a dash of nutrition to their lives

Staff Reporter

`Kitchen Queen' contest for HIV positive women organised

FUN FEAST: Participants at the Kitchen Queen contest organised by the Indian Community Welfare Organisation in Egmore in Chennai on Sunday. - PHOTO: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: Nutrition for the HIV positive was the theme of the Kitchen Queen contest organised by the Indian Community Welfare Organisation in Egmore here on Sunday morning.

Fifteen women, including commercial sex workers and the transgendered, were selected to participate in the contest for people living with HIV/AIDS. They each made one juice and one solid food item, explaining to the judge why they chose particular ingredients and what nutrients their dishes had. They were ranked according to the taste, presentation and nutritive value of the food.

Adithya, a music director who has also anchored cooking shows on television, was the judge for the event. He has previously taken classes for HIV positive women on nutrition and food.

Vice Consul General of the United States Brian T. Bedell said the event was an innovative method to help positive people realise they had space to exhibit their skills.

P. Krishnamoorthy, Project Director, Aids Prevention and Control Project (APAC), emphasised the importance of nutrition. Since several participants were taking anti-retroviral drugs, their food needed to be of enhanced nutritive value.

Some participants were nervous about identifying themselves in public as HIV positive, recalls Mary Priya Dan, counsellor.

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