On the eve of World AIDS Day 2017, India HIV/AIDS Alliance organised its ‘Annual Community Leadership Awards’ here at Central Park, Connaught Place, around the theme of ‘Increasing Impact through Transparency, Accountability and Partnerships’.
The highlights of the event included a visual exhibition tracing the journey of the campaign against HIV, dance performances by various community groups, leadership awards and talk sessions on community engagement and HIV responses. The event concluded with a music performance.
“One of the reasons that India has had success with its HIV control programme is because of the leadership seen from those who have been directly affected by HIV. Community participation and enthusiasm is the driving force in successfully fighting the HIV epidemic. The Annual Community Leadership Awards is our way of acknowledging the hard work, resilience and advocacy of the leaders,” said Sonal Mehta, Chief Executive, India HIV/AIDS Alliance.
Stress on awareness
In the Individual Award category, seven emerging leaders — Geethanjali Amalrani, Garudadhwaja Mohapatra, Raveena Bariha, P. Pooja, Neuniwanda Enity Pakma, Chinmay Modi and Varsha Newaskar — along with Network of Maharashtra by People Living with HIV/AIDS (NMP+), a community-based organisation, were felicitated for their contribution in the fight against AIDS.
The event was addressed by activists from the LGBT community besides Sanjeeva Kumar, Additional Secretary, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Dr. K.S. Sachdeva, Deputy Director General, NACO, and Dr. Bilali Camara, Country Director, UNAIDS.
Regional Manager of the Alliance, Vijay Nair, in his keynote address stressed the importance of disseminating correct information about the disease among the masses.
“There are myths that only transgender communities and homosexuals can suffer from and carry this disease. We need to overcome such myths,” he said.
Struggle for acceptance
Noori Saleem, president, South Indian Positive Network stressed that the struggle for inclusion and acceptance was an additional trauma that victims of the disease faced even today.
“As a sex worker, I was identified with the disease in 1987. The discrimination that I faced was magnified on multiple levels because not only was I a victim of the disease, I was a transgender and a sex worker. I come here today and on other such events to ensure that I’m able to provide others with the support that I myself was deprived of,” she said.
B. Sekar, Founder, Social Welfare Association for Men, also talked about the discrimination and stigmatisation that transgender communities and homosexuals are facing, and underlined the need to rise above these biases. The addresseers further talked about the importance of organising such events in open, public spaces that are not selective.
“This is a public forum for people to take away information from and spread the message further. It serves as a bridge between the survivors and the masses wherein they get to know our story and accept us as one among them. It is also a huge support system for us as survivors,” said Daxa Patel, president of NCPI+ and one of the oldest HIV survivors of India.
