********************************************************** SAATHII Electronic Newsletter HIV NEWS FROM INDIA Source: www.exchange4media.com, The Calcutta Telegraph. Posted on: 31/10/2007 COMPILED BY: Randhir Kumar, Jacob Boopalan, and L. Ramakrishnan SAATHII Chennai office. Note: this compilation contains news items about HIV/AIDS published in the Indian media, as well as articles relevant to HIV/AIDS in India published internationally. Articles in this and previous newsletters may also be accessed at http://www.saathii.org/orc/elibrary =============================================================== 1. Bindass spreads awareness about HIV/AIDS in India with The Three (New Delhi) www.exchange4media.com, October 28, 2007. http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory.asp?section_id=6&news_id=28346&tag=23253&pict=7 2. Forum to fight against AIDS (Imphal) The Calcutta Telegraph, October 28, 2007 http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071028/asp/northeast/story_8480876.asp =============================================================== 1. Bindass spreads awareness about HIV/AIDS in India with The Three (New Delhi) www.exchange4media.com, October 28, 2007. http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory.asp?section_id=6&news_id=28346&tag=23253&pict=7 New Delhi: Bindass spreads awareness about HIV/AIDS in India with The Three Bindaas, UTV's youth channel, is playing a key role in spreading the message of prevention of AIDS in India. As part of this initiative, the channel is airing The Three Amigos, a series of 20 multi-award wining public service announcement (PSA) spots designed to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The animated condom spots run 10 times a day on the channel, making a substantial contribution towards stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Three Amigos is an international campaign and a Canadian-South African co-production involving a large volunteer effort from over 80 international animation professionals. Indian-born Canada-based Firdaus Kharas is the director and producer of the series. The animated PSAs star three animated characters to deliver a serious message encouraging the principle that condoms are our friends or amigos. Zarina Mehta, CEO, Bindass, said, We are very excited about the Three Amigos being aired on Bindass. These spots support India's efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and we believe that these engaging messages will substantially contribute towards encouraging responsible behaviour amongst our youth audience. Kharas said, I am absolutely delighted to have Bindass as our broadcaster in India. Their target audience is perfect for this campaign and I salute their contribution towards stopping the spread of this deadly disease in India. Already, India has well over 5 million HIV positive people, a number that is expected to grow significantly. Bindass is literally saving lives by donating their airtime to air this campaign. The Three Amigos has received 30 international recognitions and widespread acclaim, including the prestigious Peabody Award, received recently by Kharas. Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a strong supporter of the project and has called the PSAs a powerful communicating tool and an outstanding contribution to the campaign against HIV. The PSAs have been re-created in 41 languages, including English, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali and Urdu. =============================================================== 2. Forum to fight against AIDS (Imphal) The Calcutta Telegraph, October 28, 2007 http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071028/asp/northeast/story_8480876.asp Imphal: Forum to fight against AIDS Manipur Legislature Forum on AIDS will be launching an awareness drive in all the 60 Assembly constituencies from next month. We have formed an executive committee of the forum, which was constituted in June this year. We will launch an awareness campaign from the second week of November,the chairman of the executive committee and Speaker of the state Assembly, S. Budhichandra Singh, announced today. Manipur is the twelfth state in India to constitute a legislature forum to fight the disease. Budhichandra said the campaign would cover at least 30 Assembly constituencies before World AIDS Day on December 1. Describing the AIDS scenario in Manipur as alarming, the Speaker said involvement of the ministers, MLAs, and elected members of local bodies would go a long way in checking spread of the disease in the state. Though Manipur's population accounts for only 0.8 per cent of the total population of the country, the state ranks only after Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in AIDS affliction. Singh said the executive committee of the forum would meet in the next few days to chalk out a strategy. All the 60 legislators would be actively involved in the awareness campaign and would also contribute towards the campaign from their local area development fund. According to statistics available with the Manipur AIDS Control Society, of the 2.08 lakh people screened for HIV till July this year, 27,240 tested positive. Of these, 6,762 are women. The total number of full-blown AIDS cases is 4,161 while the virus has claimed 608 lives by July this year. The project director of the Manipur AIDS Control Society, T.R. Kom, said the rate of spread of the virus among intravenous drug users had come down from 76.9 per cent in 1997 to only 19.8 per cent last year. He, however, expressed concern that spread of the virus through unprotected sex was increasing both in the urban as well as rural areas. =============================================================== Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in the above articles are those of the respective newspapers, not those of SAATHII.