Deep Griha Society, Pune, India

You are here: Home » Programmes » DISHA: HIV & AIDS

DISHA (Deep Griha's Integrated Service for HIV & AIDS)

9 December 2009

Celebration of Life 2009

The Celebration of Life 2009 was organized by DISHA to raise awareness about HIV and sensitise the community on the need to support people living with HIV on Friday, December4 in the Tadiwala Road area.

A rally was held in the morning in Tadiwala road and the participants included members of the staff, volunteers and clients of Deep Griha Society, local school students and people from the community groups. A total of 250 people showed their support to the cause of raising awareness and fighting the stigma associated with HIV by participating in the rally. The rally concluded with fireworks in the afternoon.

The event in the evening saw lot of people gathering to see what is happening even before the show started. The chief guest for the event, Milind Kamble, Member, Pune Board of Education, began proceedings with his speech on HIV and AIDS. The event comprised of cultural activities, song and dance performed by the beneficiaries and staff of Deep Griha Society.

Prizes were awarded to the winners of Condom Cricket Tournament, Poster, Mehendi and Drawing competition organized by Deep Griha Society. A street play was put up by the students of B T Shahani High School. Children from Aadhar Kendra with the help of one of the interns working with DGS also performed a street play.

The highlight of the evening was the positive speakers from Sahara Aalhad and DISHA client from Ramtekadi (Click here to know more about what they said). DISHA was grateful to all three clients who had the courage to share their story in front of such a huge crowd. All stressed on importance of being aware about HIV/AIDS and demystifying myths about HIV with their own examples. All stated the need for support and the fact that people should stop stigmatizing and discriminating against people living with HIV as HIV doesn’t kill people, STIGMA KILLS! Positive living approach towards life is what all emphasized on.

The evening ended with a dance performance by the volunteers of Deep Griha Society. The program was a huge success with hundreds of people attending the event.

Click here to see more photos from the event

Category: DISHA

Return

Wake Up Pune

Deep Griha Society is a major partner in the Wake Up Pune campaign, which brings together a coalition of NGOs and civil society groups to run city-wide HIV awareness programmes.

The campaign has received significant international coverage and has reflected very positively on Deep Griha Society. DISHA has organised or contributed to many events under the Wake Up Pune banner this year - please visit www.wakeuppune.org for full details about the campaign.

In January 2008, Wake Up Pune was given an award by UNAIDS as recognition for the events organised on World AIDS Day 2007 (1 December). Subsequently, Wake Up Pune was chosen by the World AIDS Campaign to be the key implmenting partner for World AIDS Day India 2008.

In March 2008, the campaign was selected as a finalist for the World Bank-sponsored South Asia Regional Development Marketplace, held at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai. Grants of $40,000 were on offer for winning projects. Although Wake Up Pune was unsuccessful on this occasion, getting shortlisted was a significant achievement in itself. The event was also a great opportunity to network with other organisations and leading individuals working in the field of HIV & AIDS.