Aware, students walk the talk

CHANDIGARH: Their motive - “clear vision lead by example”.
Fifteen students of Panjab University got their HIV/AIDS test done on Thursday. And their reason of doing so was simple - set an example for others and encourage acceptance for people living with AIDS. On Friday, these students launched an AIDS awareness camp at the Student Centre.
Meet the first year students at PU’s centre for social work for whom working towards AIDS awareness is not a formal classroom assignment.Instead, these youngsters choose to dedicate their lives to spread awareness on the cause.
“How can we talk about a subject without doing something about it ourselves? Several of my classmates and I got our HIV test done from PGI to set an example for our peers to follow and help shed inhibition,” says Priyanka Pahwa, a student of MA-I at PU.
Meanwhile, a week before the World AIDS Day, students have started getting postcards signed in Panjab University hostels.
Close to seven students from MA-I are getting signatures from university students on postcards with different messages. Some of these messages read: “Stop discriminating against HIV patients”, “Give a helping hand to people who have HIV, do not discriminate” and “Give equal rights to them”, among others.
As a part of a nationwide campaign to sign one lakh postcards for the AIDS healthcare foundation, these postcards, once collected in New Delhi, will be sent to the Union health minister to push for life insurance cover for people living with HIV/AIDS.
“At present, people with HIV/AIDS are not given insurance cover — out of 40 such insurance companies only one gives this provision. The students are carrying out this drive so that the country realizes the need to treat them at par with others,” said Gaurav Gaur, a faculty member at centre for social work, PU.
PU students Cheena Taneja, Amol Kaur, Anamika, Jince George, Aditya Kaushik and Pranshu Kaushik are also a part of the drive.