Richard Gere, Indian actors stage AIDS awareness show

Hollywood actor Richard Gere along with the Indian film fraternity raised funds for AIDS awareness with a star-studded show yesterday in southern city of Hyderabad.

The Heroes Project, a campaign launched by the Gere Foundation and socialite Parmeswar Godrej earlier this week, organized the show, which included popular actors Kamal Hassan, Chiranjeevi and Prabhu Deva, who pledged to help fight the disease.

The show, inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh chief Y. S. Rajashekhar Reddy, along with federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Jaipal Reddy, was also attended by hundreds of HIV positive men and women.

"The state government has undertaken a massive program to bring awareness about HIV/AIDS to the public. Those affected should feel themselves as a part of the society and need not feel isolated," Reddy said.

"We can save 40 million people, we can save one brother, one sister...we have HIV positive people here, stand up...be counted. We are not afraid of you, we love you," Gere added.

According to the United Nations, India has 5.1 million AIDS cases, the largest number in the world after South Africa. Some reports estimate the number of people afflicted in India could reach 20 million by 2010.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) leads to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). There is no cure for AIDS but several drugs have been found to work against HIV.

Although the government has launched a nationwide project to build AIDS awareness in India, the world's second-most populous nation, it is facing an uphill social and cultural battle because of the enormous stigma attached to the disease.

The disease is spreading from traditionally high-risk groups, such as commercial sex workers, drug users and homosexuals, to large rural and urban areas with huge migrant populations.