THE RED RIBBON EXPRESS
2008-06-14 Gorakphur
Indian government launched four Red Ribbon Express Trains as massive national campaign of AIDS Awareness. One of the Red Ribbon Express Train reached Gorakphur on February 8, 2008 and ASSI participate in this campaign by opening a booth where we distributed free AIDS Awareness CDs and also give information about our Railway Kids Program (Sahyog-A-Child).
HIV-AIDS IN INDIA
With a population of five hundred thousand HIV-positive individuals, India has the second largest population of HIV-positives persons in the world. And there’s a fear that the situation can get worse because the epidemic nature of HIV-AIDS.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is working on the National AIDS control Policy to arriving at zero infection rates and to help people understand that prevention is the key in keeping India safe from HIV/AIDS. They had decided to launch a massive national communication campaign with its unique four Red Ribbon Express Trains.
Red Ribbon Train Project
This project is a collaborated effort of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and will be implemented with inputs from Indian Railways, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Department of Culture, Red Cross and youth from the National Service Scheme along with several partners and Non-Governmental organizations. Also part of the National campaign, aimed at mainstreaming the issue of HIV/AIDS will be university bodies, students, folk artists and the National Cadet Corps.
The board objectives of the Red Ribbon Express would be to provide a complete communication, counseling, treatment, and care package to the target population, especially in rural areas with special focus on youth and other vulnerable groups.
Four Red Ribbon Express trains would be flagged off from Kanyakumari in the South, Jammu in the North, Jaiselmer in the West and Dimapur in the East. All of these will end their journey at the center of the country at Nagpur.
Travelling in the train would be several teams of performers who at these stations will fan-out in different directions with the aim to cover between 10-20 villages. In all about 29000 villages are being expected to be covered and there will be awareness focused performance in each village. The arrival of train at each of the destination will be accompanied by adequate media publicity with a view to encouraging local participants. In the event and to generate traffic towards counseling, treatment and care facilities available in the railway coaches.
The trains as per the scheduled prepared by NACO is expected to have nearly 100 halts over a period of six months where they will stationed for two days each at the village and various identified centers.
The four trains will then reach Nagpur, the central point of India each having travelled for six months. The distance travelled by each train will be about 6000 Km and the campaign’s strong point include the fact that it would be able to cover a large population, something that hasn’t been before.
Red Ribbon Express Reached At Gorakhpur Station
On February 8, 2008 one of the Red Ribbon Express Train reached Gorakhpur Station with an objective to give awareness to the people in urban areas as well as in rural areas. Chief Guest Mr. Rajeev Kumar, (commissioner of Gorakhpur) inaugurated the exhibition arranged in the coaches through cutting the ribbon. Mr. Kumar also started the cultural band by waving the green flag which was ready on colorful bicycles for going in villages to aware the people.
ASSI’s participation in the activity
We gave a request letter to the Railway Manager in Gorakhpur and gain his permission to open one stall and participate in this Red Ribbon Express program. We distributed pamphlets and HIV/AIDS awarness CDs. We distributed 2,500 CDs among the people who were interested to know in details about the awareness program. We also exhibit our Sahyog-A-Child project in our stall. Our participation in this function is appreciated by many people and we are glad to be able to take part in this program. We gave a request letter to the manager of the railway and we got permitted to participate in the activities of the Red Ribbon Express. There we took a stall at the railway platform and distributed pamphlets. A major work has been done by the organization and that is the distribution of HIV/AIDS awareness CDs. We distributed 2500 awareness CDs among the people of rural and urban both the areas who were interested to know about details of the awareness program. We also focused our project Sahyog-A-Child at the stall. Our
CD distribution work was appreciated everywhere and by doing this activity ASSI participated in the function.