NCC-UNICEF jointly ride AIDS awareness trail
By Kulsum Talha Lucknow: “Mission accomplished!” they shouted in gleeful unison. Of course it was no war cry but shouts of triumph at having succeeded in their endeavour of doing their bit in the fight against AIDS. Covering a distance of 3,000 km, this dedicated cavalcade which was flagged off from Lucknow on April 22, covered 12 districts in both states. It stopped at Sitapur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Dhampur, Haridwar, Dehra Dun, Roorkee, Meerut, Aligarh, Agra, Etawah, Kanpur, Jhansi, Banda, Allahabad, Varanasi, and Gorakahpur winding up finally at its starting point in Lucknow. The rally is a part of the on going partnership between NCC and UNICEF. Over 850 cadets from 5 of the 11 NCC Groups of UP have been trained as Peer Educators so far. UNICEF prepared the participants for the rally trained them on street play, role play and provided them with communication tools and shared costs of fuel, kits and training and other expenses.At halts they organized innovative road shows and nukkad natak (street-corner plays), on HIV/AIDS and precautions to check the spread of the virus through safe sex, use of sterilized syringes and monitoring of blood. Lectures and demonstrations were held and IEC material distributed at schools to take the message to young people.
Speaking at the felicitation ceremony at Surya Auditorium in Lucknow, Dr. Hettiaratchy said “While this is the beginning of a new and long journey to me, UNICEF’s partnership with NCC looks like the best marriage that can ever happen and one that I am confident will produce healthy offspring.”
India has over 5.1 million HIV/AIDS affected persons but only 34 per cent people in the most populous border state of U.P., are aware of the disease and even less about how to protect themselves against infection. Mohammad Arif, one of the motorcycle cadets said he felt like a chosen one. “We have a good feeling that we’ve educated fellow human beings about how they can live a safer and healthier life just by being aware and alert.” “The heat and dust, home sickness and hard work is all worth it as the feeling of having shared life-saving tips with many who would have otherwise never really known about it makes us feel like Good Samaritans. In NCC we take an oath to do one good deed this was like doing a thousand good deeds in a few days,” added another rallyist Sarthak. Given NCC’s track record of delivering quality programmes by their youth force, their tie-up with UNICEF heralds the beginning of a powerful partnership to take head-on the demon of HIV/AIDS.
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