Youth will be engaged in awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS, TB and voluntary blood donation being hosted in Puducherry under the New India@75 initiatives marking the 75th anniversary of Independence.
At a recent meeting of the State-level committee on HIV under the auspices of the National AIDS Control Organisation, it was decided to roll out the campaigns in three phases, targeting students of schools and colleges.
The campaigns would engage youth under Adolescence Education Programme (AEP) and Red Ribbon Clubs (RRC) that have already been implemented in schools and colleges respectively under the National AIDS Control Programme with the support of the Education Department.
The meeting was chaired by B. Rajambal, project director, Pondicherry AIDS Control Society, in order to chalk out the implementation strategy towards campaigns to be organised in a phased manner.
M. Krishnamurthy, Deputy Director (IEC), and S. Settouramane, Assistant Director (Youth) in-charge, explained about the purpose of the meeting. Officials from line departments participated in the meeting.
The programme, conceived by the NITI Aayog and touching 41 areas, is to be launched at the national level in hybrid mode. The first phase of the campaign on HIV awareness would be launched by the Union Health Secretary on August 12, coinciding with International Youth Day.
The second phase of the campaign on voluntary blood donation awareness would be launched by the Minister of State on October 2, marking National Voluntary Blood Donation Day, while the third phase of the campaign on TB awareness would be launched by the Union Health & Family Welfare Minister on December 2, World AIDS Day.
In each phase, 25 government schools and 25 colleges will be covered and 50 students each from schools and colleges will be participating in the awareness campaign in a virtual mode. The campaigns would be covered extensively in the social media platform.
The concept of New India@75 programme and participation of Union Territory of Puducherry as contributory partner of National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) programme was explained to the members of State-level committee by the Project Director.
After the launching of the campaign at the national level, various events /programmes / competitions will be conducted in schools and colleges to create awareness among the students.
