National Campaign by Artists Against HIV/AIDS begin

[Guest guest]

Sahara's celebration of lives begin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2003 01:32:53 AM ]

LUCKNOW : A 3-day national campaign titled `Celebration of lives —

National Campaign by Artists Against HIV/AIDS' in the country began

at Arts Camp, Amby Valley , Sahara Lake City near Lonavala,

Maharashtra on Tuesday. The objective of the campaign is to fight the

stigma and discrimination faced by the People Living with HIV and

AIDS (PLWHA).

This national campaign is being organised by Sahara India Pariwar in

association with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and

Regional HIV and Development Programme, South and North East Asia.

The artistes who are lending their creative support to the cause

include Jatin Das, Madhavi, Manu Parikh, Bulbul Sharma, Achutan

Kuldur, Sunil Das, Surya Prakash and Sanjay Bhattacharya. They will

paint on positive themes related to the lives of PLWHA.

The works of these artistes will be subsequently exhibited at New

Delhi , Mumbai, Hyderabad , Chennai and Bangalore as a travelling

exhibition, which will be flagged off in New Delhi at Taj Palace in

December.

Proceeds from the sale of paintings will go to a fund that will help

the HIV/AIDS-sufferers to access treatment of their ailment. Speaking

at the inaugural session, Lt-Gen (Retd) AS Rao, director worker,

Shara India Pariwar said that the Sahara Pariwar had always espoused

the social and human causes whether it be the offering of financial

and emotional support to families of Kargil martyrs or uplifting the

socio-economic status of the underprivileged

He said that our Pariwar had undertaken a resolution — a `sankalp'—

to contribute its mite towards mitigating the sufferings of humanity.

For this the Pariwar had constituted a wing called `Sahara Sankalp'

which encompasses various social development activities like beggar

rehabilitation programme, literacy programme, health programme for

the handicapped etc.

Maurice Dewulf, senior deputy resident representative, UNDP, while

lauding the campaign said a couple of countries had achieved

remarkable results and had been able to reverse the onslaught of

AIDS.

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