Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Support for AIDS campaign
Posted by: Phat Mama, 30-Nov-2010
How many of us know that 13,000 people have died of AIDS-related diseases since the late 80s, after it spread to Malaysia?This however isn’t the exact figure as there must have been many more unrecorded deaths from AIDS. Again, this figure does not include HIV patients.
Many of us must have heard and read about HIV/AIDS while others may even have had direct and personal experience through people they know who are infected by HIV or died of AIDS. How much though have we done to fight AIDS on a personal level?
The AIDSAware Campaign aims to spread the message to the masses that the only way to control the spread of HIV/AIDS is by educating ourselves on preventive measures. We also need to understand the predicament of those faced with HIV/AIDS and how we can be their friends instead of discriminating inflicted victims.
The AIDSAware Campaign is collaboration between PT Foundation (PTF) and ruumzcauses. Its first phase of campaign involving the public is the online initiative where the public can post their photos holding placards carrying messages related to HIV/AIDS.
By Dec 31 the organisers hope to compile a total of 13,000 photo messages to commemorate the 13,000 people who have died of AIDS. And this is how the idea went one step further, by roping in celebrities to jump onboard and use their position as public figures to bring in the support. This then led to the AIDSAware Calendar, which is being sold at all The Body Shop outlets for RM29.90 each.
It is a very well-put together project and a well designed calendar by Creative Juice-Sil with photography by Studio Pashe. Some of the celebrities who took part in the project were present at the launch, which I mentioned in yesterday’s post.
I’m not sure if there are plans for these celebrities to make a public appearance to encourage people to buy the calendars and have them autographed but it would be a good way to perk up sales with proceeds channelled to the PT Foundation.
A lot of support is being given to the campaign. All the photo shoot, behind-the-scene videos and video messages shot to raise awareness and encourage public participation are being screened and displayed at The Body Shop outlets, RapidKL and LRT. On top of that the online blogging community has also been roped in to lend support and TV spots rolled-out on hitz.tv.
We will be reading a lot about the campaign and where it all leads to when magazines and online portals start featuring the interviews carried out with some of the personalities involved alongside AIDSAware public service announcements.
If you want to do your part, get online on www.aidsaware.ruumz.com and get copies of the calendar at the outlets mentioned. We can’t do enough but starting somewhere would be the smartest thing to do.
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