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Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

Loud and clear You too can make a big difference in your own small way

The buzzword here is ‘empathy’- the ability to experience and respond to others’ feelings. All it takes is to imagine, emote and take things in the right perspective.

Today is World AIDS Day, an occasion to celebrate the gains made in treating and preventing HIV/AIDS, as well as in protecting the human rights of those living with the virus.

It is also a time to commemorate the lives lost and to learn from past mistakes. But, just as importantly, it is a time to raise public awareness and advocate for change.

The day also calls for soul-searching by individuals on their role in the gigantic task of obliterating the pandemic from the face of the earth.

“We want people to penetrate deeper into their souls to examine their convictions and attitudes vis-À-vis the ongoing battle waged against AIDS.

The string of programmes initiated by the government to contain the virus is not enough.

We cannot achieve success unless individuals feel responsible and strengthen our hands,” says Ashok Kumar, Project Director of Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS).

As always, the AIDS control society has lent an innovative touch to the occasion by making it a child-centric issue.

A huge bunch of 300-400 HIV- infected or affected children will take part in the string of programmes planned for the day at the State capital. “We will leave alone the children for sometime to debate among themselves the various dimensions of the problem and in the end of it all, the young ones will come out with a ‘declaration’ demanding their elders hand them over an AIDS-free society,” says Mr. Ashok Kumar.

“The slogan of ‘We want an AIDS-free world’ will prod the elders to take the lead in the anti-AIDS campaign in their own respective ways,” he explains referring to the theme of ‘Leadership” for the World AIDS Day –2007. “It is our bounden responsibility to remove the taboo associated with AIDS and make them realise that they are better, nicer and more effective than they are often thought to be. We must raise their self-esteem and keep it aloft,” he says.

Using every possible weapon in its armoury, the AIDS Control Society is trying to rope in leaders from different sections in its belief that only strong and committed leadership can help wipe out the social malaise that the virus has come to be identified as.

Leaders are often not those in the highest offices. Leadership must be demonstrated at every level to get ahead of the disease - in families, in communities, in countries and internationally.

Much of the best leadership on AIDS has been demonstrated within civil society organisations challenging the status quo.

In Andhra Pradesh, nearly 7,000 children have been put on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) since September 2006. A total of 1,431 children are currently on ART while AP has the largest number of people subjected to the ART, a disturbing revelation that comes with a small solace that it only indicates the scaling up of services and their increased acceptability.

Though statistics indicate a sharp decline in fresh infection rate, we cannot afford to loosen vigil and lower guard. The message is loud and clear: ‘Convert awareness into action, identify ‘positive’ persons and make them behave responsibly.

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