Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Be aware of AIDS
By Vidushi Seneviratne
Held for the third consecutive year, the AIDS Awareness Campaign 2005, will be presented on a bigger scale this time around. A joint community service project organised by the Interactors of St. Peter’s College and St. Bridget’s Convent, the event will be a combination of a walk, followed by an education and fun fair. With the primary assistance of UNICEF, and also of the Ministry of Education, the event promises to be a truly valuable experience for all the young people involved in it.

The energetic organising committee for the event comprises twenty-four young Interactors between the ages of 14 and 19; 12 from each school. Tharindri Rupesinghe and Tanya Hettiarachchi from St. Bridget’s Convent and Manuk Gunawardena and Randika Perera from St. Peter’s College, are the chairpersons overseeing the project, whilst the rest of the committee have divided themselves into groups, under various other areas that need to be taken care of. Though the idea had been in the pipeline for the past year, the real planning of the event began about two months ago.

“Though our target this year was to get over 3000 children from outstation involved in the project, the plan didn’t materialise. But still, this year’s campaign will be held on a larger scale than the previous ones, with simultaneous competitions and activities taking place,” said Wasaam Ismail, who is in charge of editorial affairs for the project. We will be utilising the whole of Excel World, with the many competitions being held in various areas of the venue.”

Scheduled to be held on November 6, the programme will be held at Excel World. The walk, which starts at 8.30 a.m. will commence at the Viharamadevi Park and proceed through Hospital Square, Union Place and Darley Road, ending at Excel World. AIDS awareness ribbons will be handed out to all participants of the walk, which is open to the public. While music will be played throughout the walk, the organisers will be carrying placards and posters drawn by them with messages on AIDS awareness. All the banners for the event too, will be handpainted by the organisers.

The fair, scheduled from 9.30 a.m. onwards, includes numerous activities such as multi-media presentations, essay and speech competitions, friendly debates and poster competitions. Also, talent competitions under the categories of solo, group and band, plus dramas, will be some of the other activities included; all of them revolving around the objective of AIDS awareness. The invitee schools have been asked to send in their applications for whichever activities they would like to opt for. Participants get to take part in an ‘all-you-can-drink’ competition as well, sponsored by Pepsi.

According to Wasaam, they will be inviting individuals working in the relevant fields to judge the competitions. “While the results of the essay competition will be given later, the results of all of the other competitions will be announced to the participants on the day of the event itself,” he said. Also, the medium of all of the competitions scheduled to be held, will be trilingual, and the participants will be entered under the relevant categories. He added that cash prizes and certificates will be awarded to all prize winners.

UNICEF, coming in as the sole sponsor of the event, will be handing out questionnaires to the participants, in an attempt to grasp the extent of the knowledge of young people, regarding the area of AIDS awareness. The electronic media sponsors for the event are YES FM, Sirasa TV and MTV Channel 1. While the beverage sponsor is Pepsi, CIC paints will be assisting with material for some of the competitions, such as supplying paints for the poster competition.

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