Million condoms for Commonwealth Games

Delhi AIDS Control Society to up the campaign tempo during Games

Delhi AIDS Control Society to up the campaign tempo during Games

Come October and all will stand for a cause.
With Commonwealth Games 2010 providing a bigger platform to reach out to a larger audience than one can expect, Delhi States AIDS Control Society (DSACS) is all geared up for a massive anti-HIV awareness campaign to achieve the mission of a healthy and responsible nation.

Hundreds of volunteers will walk down the road and initiate talks on HIV virus and its effects. "Nothing has been finalised yet. But we are for sure making plans to capitalise on the Commonwealth Games. The proposal would be sent to the concerned authorities for their approval," said DR AK Gupta, initiative additional project director, DSACS.

DSACS, which is giving final shape to the awareness campaign, will mainly target the youth along with adults between the age group of 25 to 49. Even China used the similar platform to create awareness against HIV/AIDS during the Olympic Games. More than 200 trained volunteers went on to conduct awareness campaign in Beijing and other cities of China much before the Olympic Games were held.

In Delhi, too, the campaign will cover the routes taken by athletes to the Games venues and stadiums. Besides posters, pamphlets and street plays, a major part of the campaign will be conducted with the help of specially designed vans, which will roam around in the city. "These are called Information, Education and Communication Vans (IEC). Each van will have a group of volunteers along with a doctor. The team will go to different places and will interact with people," added Dr Gupta.

In order to promote the cause in right direction, there will be provision of condoms for free in the city. Presently, DSACS and National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) have placed Condom Vending Machines (CVM) at different places across the city and have also increased the number of CVMs.

As per the officials, who wished not to be quoted, the number of condoms under free supply would be doubled.
"Millions of condoms are made available to the people through the CVMs and the number would be just doubled during Games. We are not trying to project Delhi as a venue for sex, but Games will be as a unique platform to educate people about condoms and how it can prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) and HIV infection," said the official.

Interestingly, as per the various surveys carried out in the city and other states of the country, a large section

Safety first

In China during Olympic Games, the organising committee took special help from athletes and coaches to create mass awareness against HIV infection. The programs specially target youngsters and migrants who arrived at Beijing from different places of China for creating Olympic infrastructure. Along with the Chinese Olympic committee officials, UN AIDS officials, specially conducted workshops for the migrant population to keep them away from unsafe sex.

of the society is not aware of the relation between STD and HIV infection. Similarly, a large group refrains from purchasing condoms just because of their inhibition.

"It is important to talk freely about the usage of condoms. These are not mere contraceptives, but also serve the larger purpose in terms of health safety," added the official.

Similarly, dedicated radio program, jingles and advertisements would be carried out in newspapers and radios to target the masses during Games. Besides dedicated radio programs, selected narratives would be aired on television to educate people.

Meanwhile, DSACS is also planning to strengthen its available services. As of now, DSACS along with NGO registered under it, run 96 counselling and testing centres, 65 different programs to create HIV awareness, 17 STD clinics and nine Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) clinics to provide medication to the HIV infected people.