Shabana Azmi and Sanath Jayasuriya SAARC Goodwill Ambassadors

[Guest guest]

Sanath made SAARC Goodwill Ambassador

Sri Lanka's star batsman Sanath Jayasuriya and Shabana Azmi were

selected as SAARC Goodwill Ambassadors for the programme `Uniting for

HIV AIDS' by the selection committee at a meeting held at the SAARC

Secretariat in Kathmandu recently.

This prestigious honorary title is for a period of two years and the

Goodwill Ambassadors are expected to travel to all SAARC member

States, the Foreign Ministry said. The overall goal of the Goodwill

Ambassador is to garner enhanced response to the fight against

HIV/AIDS within the Member States through advocacy and public

mobilization efforts at the regional level.

The Twelfth SAARC Summit (Islamabad, January 2004) directed that a

Regional Strategy on HIV/ AIDS should be formulated through a

consultative process and in collaboration with the Joint United

Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

India nominated Ms. Shabana Azmi and Mr. Baiching Bhutia . Nepal

nominated Mr. Madan Krishna Shrestha and Mr. Hari Bamsha Acharya.

Pakistan nominated Mr. Jehangir Khan. Sri Lanka nominated Mr. Nimal

Siripala de Silva and Mr. Sanath Jayasuriya. Meeting of the selection

Committee to select a SAARC Goodwill Ambassador, which comprised of

three assessors representing the last, current and next Chair of

SAARC, was held at the SAARC Secretariat, Kathmandu on April 29,

2008.

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