AIDS campaign to get wheels this January

Come January and the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) will send out its message on wheels. Four trains, renamed ‘‘Red Rib...

Come January and the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) will send out its message on wheels. Four trains, renamed ‘‘Red Ribbon Express’’ and loaded with doctors, nurses, lab assistants and theatre personalities, will criss-cross the country to spread awareness on the killer disease and provide anti-retroviral drugs and testing facilities.

In collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the Ministry of Railways, the hospitals-on-wheels are part of a six-month public awareness campaign planned by NACO. Their message: ‘‘One nation, one resolve, lets fight AIDS together.’’

‘‘The ‘Red Ribbon Express’ campaign will be launched either in the first week of January 2005 or on Republic Day. NACO wants that each person in the country should consider the programme as his/her own,’’ said NACO Director-General Dr S.Y. Quraishi. He said while the route and stops are yet to be finalised with the Railway Ministry, the aim is to cover each and every village in the country in the coming six months. Starting from four corners of the country — Jammu, Kanyakumari, Guwahati and Jodhpur — the ‘‘AIDS trials’’ will cover all states.

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‘‘A special section in each train will be used as an exhibition site with posters and information on issues ranging from condom use to safe sex,’’ said Dr Quraishi. The other section will function as a hospital.

In order to attract villagers, NACO has planned to wed information with entertainment. ‘‘Dance and drama troupes have been engaged. There will be street plays and folk performers in each train. Though the message will be the same, folk forms will vary in different regions,’’ he added.

According to NACO, the local AIDS and youth organisations, NGOs and government agencies would be responsible for advertising the arrival of the train.

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