‘Aid’ for a good cause

When Charlie Sheen stunned the world with his HIV positive status recently, the story wasn’t his status as much as the stigma associated with it and the lack of awareness thereof. As the world observes World AIDS Day on December 1, celebrities are doing their bit to get the conversation started with #KnowAIDSNoAIDS this month.

Hollywood is going red with U2 singer, Bono’s latest campaign. If fans pledge as little as $10 to his organisation dedicated to fighting AIDS, they stand a chance to win opportunities that otherwise, they can only dream of – ride a bike with Bono through Central Park and get ice cream afterwards, a tour of the Game of Thrones sets, a private cooking lesson with Mario Batali, getting your portrait painted by James Franco, shooting a holiday card with Shaquille O’Neal, receive a makeover from Kim Kardashian, catch a football game with Matthew McConaughey in his VIP box or meet Matt Damon in his green room!

The Indian film industry is rooting for the red ribbon too. Shilpa Shetty made headlines when she decided to donate her winnings from Big Brother to AIDS awareness campaigns in India, as did Preity Zinta when she joined the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS as their Goodwill Ambassador in India, to promote public awareness on HIV. Most recently, 22 leading Indian film actors including Amitabh Bachchan, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Shabana Azmi, Suhashini Mani Ratnam, Anushka Shetty, Sudeep, Suriya, Imran Khan and Shruti Hassan have brought animations to life for the global NGO TeachAIDS’ campaign, which specifically aims at schools. “As actors, we usually act, dance and take some money home. This wasn’t just a learning experience for us, but helped us to be a part of the bigger picture,” says actor Vijay Raghavendra, who lent his voice to one of the animated characters in the campaign. “This is specifically aimed at kids who may easily be mislead and have no knowledge about how the disease could spread. The awareness starts young and it starts now,” he adds.