Health Lessons

For many involved in community health systems,any message that informs and entertains works in a society like ours,where awareness about health issues like AIDS and lifestyle diseases are low. The craze about movies is often utilised to reach out to people in villages too. Agrees Mohini Daljeet Singh,Head,Max India Foundation Health,who has been spearheading community development work in various roles,focussing on health and hygiene. “We have to make it simple and meaningful and one of the vital target audience is children,” he says,adding that apart from lectures,pamphlets,talks,movies help spread the word effectively.

This year,on World Anti-Tobacco Day (May 31),a short film titled Six Seconds was produced by Max. The film was intended to make people aware of the ills of smoking and was endorsed by fashion designer Rohit Bal,telecast by CNN-IBN and Bloomberg UTV channels throughout the day. “We also screened it on LCD screens in all Max Hospitals and in more than 150 different locations,” Singh says. The Foundation has also produced short films for diabetes awareness featuring Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor,laying out the symptoms of diabetes and advising viewers to go for regular check-ups. These films are being shown on various LCD screens at railway stations and coffee houses across the country. “The idea is to make these absorbing for all age groups and audiences across the country,” says Singh.

Mehak Uppal,a 25-year-old,says,“Youngsters relate to visuals and there is no better way to strike a chord than animation movies.” Uppal shows us an eight-minute animation flick on HIV Life! Kindles from Awareness to Hope that she has created with the help of her friend Aditi Bhandari. Uppal is a master trainer for HIV/AIDS counselling under The Global Fund to Fight AIDS,Tuberculosis and Malaria and has earlier worked with the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) Asia Centre (an inter-governmental organisation). She says that over a period of time,she realised the need for such endeavours and the kind of impact it has on the infected and people at large. “We decided to make a movie that talks about measures one can take to get themselves tested for HIV,” she says,adding that in Himachal Pradesh,the state government has agreed to release the movie and to use it to disseminate information. Already,they are researching for another flick on female foeticide.

Mir Farooq,Bhanoo Pratap and Shikhar Sharma have,meanwhile,released a movie One Life on drug addiction that has also won the Frameflixx award. “A story of hope,courage and love,we crafted the movie keeping in view the increasing number of drug addiction cases in the country,” says Sharma,who has made the movie available on You Tube. “We are using mediums that are popular with the youth,so that they can understand the importance of good health,how to work towards it and what damages bad habit and carelessness can inflict. We want to spread the message that diseases,whether big or small,will not only affect you,but also your loved ones. We want to explore all possible channels,whether Facebook or radio and want everyone to join,” he says.