On a Positive note

When Katherine Feltner came to India from her home town in Seattle (USA) three months ago to work as a volunteer, she was keen on finding new ways to spread awareness about HIV/ AIDS and raise funds for Wake Up Pune, an NGO that works with AIDS survivors. She had done street plays and posters, rallies and seminars earlier, but what she really wanted to do was to get the attention of the youth and show them the seriousness of the situation; the dangers of HIV/ AIDS. Feltner found the perfect solution with Sky Rabbit, a Mumbai-based band that performed at High Spirits on Friday for a fund raising campaign for the NGO in an funky way to getting the youth involved.

"We will be having a rally that starts from our office at Tadiwala road on World Aids Day on December 1. Our campaign is to talk about AIDS, give out vital information on how one must take precautions to keep the virus at bay," says Feltner. The group will be distributing condoms at the rally and also talk to people on the dangers unprotected sex.

The activities for the World Aids Day campaign have already kick-started at Disha NGO from November 22 with a henna competition. "There is a series of competitions lined up till December 7. We do not believe that one day is enough to spread awareness about HIV/ AIDS, we must take more efforts. The competitions are a sure-shot way of getting the attention of the public. When they participate in a program or a competition, they relate to it more personally. We want to create such an impact on the lives of the public that they protect themselves and also harbour compassion towards those affected by the same," says Avinash Chakranarayan, team leader at Disha.

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