Rallying for a cause

FROM ISSUE # 133 (January 2007) | IN THIS ISSUE
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On World Aids Day 2006, my good friend Rajiv Kafle invited me to attend a UNAIDS program at the Hotel Radisson as a member of the World Cyclist Foundation. I was asked to speak about my experiences meeting people living with HIV around the world. After I'd finished speaking, a former Miss Nepal sitting next to me said, "Pushkarji when you want to support people living with  HIV/AIDS you have to prepare yourself inside your mind, make yourself aware first."  

During my travels I have visited 27 West African countries, from Morocco to South Africa. I have seen how HIV/AIDS has ravaged the lives of thousands of people both young and old. In some countries like Swaziland, as many as one in three adults are infected, and entire villages are dying. Young people don't make it past 40 because of the virus. After seeing the devastation there, I had to do something to make people aware about HIV/AIDS in Nepal.  

I decided to organise a cycle rally on World Aids Day with the help of the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS and UNAIDS. It may not have seemed like much, but at least it would help spread the word. Our slogan was "HIV/AIDS is real", and more than 200 cyclists followed me from the BICC hall in New Baneswor to Bhrikutimandap, where an event had been organised. Deputy Prime Minister Amik Sherchan also rode my bike during that event. The rally then went to Patan and came back to end in Basantapur, where students from the Fine Arts Campus had arranged an art workshop. There were more than a dozen programs that day in Kathmandu Valley. Unfortunately I didn't see the former Miss Nepal in any  of them.