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LTTE’s starts intensive AIDS awareness drive in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 December 2003, 08:06 GMT]
The Liberation Tigers began an intensive AIDS awareness campaign in Jaffna this week. Hundreds of local volunteers and members of the political division of the Liberation Tigers are going to every village and town in Jaffna daily to create awareness among the people about the dangers of AIDS. “We cannot let AIDS spread in Jaffna. It is a threat to our society. So we decided to nip it in the bud. We urge everyone’s cooperation to make people aware of the real nature of problem”, Mr. Daya Master, the LTTE media co-ordinator told TamilNet Saturday.

Reading an AIDS awareness poster by the LTTE in Jaffna (Click for a larger version)

Twenty-five persons have been identified as HIV positive in Jaffna so far, medical sources in the northern town said.

"The number is alarmingly high. We have to make an intensive effort to prevent the spread of AIDS here", said an activist from the LTTE’s political office in Kondavil near Jaffna town leading a group of volunteers for an awareness program in the area.

The AIDS awareness program was jointly organised by the Political Division of the LTTE, the Infectious Diseases Unit of the Thamileelam Health Service, Jaffna University Students, primary school teachers and local health workers.

"AIDS is knocking on our doors. Let save ourselves and our society from AIDS", is the slogan of the LTTE’s awareness program in Jaffna.

"We take the campaign against AIDS in Jaffna as seriously as the war we fought to protect our people's rights. When war is unleashed on a people, the enemy deploys many methods to destroy their culture and fundamental social values", said Mr. S. Thangan, the deputy leader of the LTTE, addressing a special press conference at the main political office of the Tigers in Jaffna Tuesday.

Volunteers and members of the LTTE are distributing leaflets, putting up posters and going house to house in villages and towns in all parts of Jaffna explaining to the people and making them fully aware of AIDS and its prevention.

Vehicles with loudhailers too are plying the roads announcing the program and exhorting neighbourhoods to participate in the awareness campaign.



A volunteer distributing leaflets on the road



Hundreds of volunteers taking part in the campaign fan out in groups with members of the LTTE in bicycles every morning from the political offices of the Liberation Tigers in Jaffna.

"We are urging the local and foreign media to help us make this campaign a real success”, an LTTE official in Jaffna told TamilNet.