Varsity asks colleges to form clubs, spread AIDS awareness
Samarpita Banerjee
Posted: Mon Oct 18 2010, 06:08 hrs
Pune:
In a bid to get the student population in the city to spread awareness about various social issues, the University of Pune (UoP) has asked 310 affiliated colleges that come under the National Service Scheme (NSS) to form Red Ribbon’s Clubs (RRC).
Source : Indian Express
Samarpita Banerjee
Posted: Mon Oct 18 2010, 06:08 hrs
Pune:
In a bid to get the student population in the city to spread awareness about various social issues, the University of Pune (UoP) has asked 310 affiliated colleges that come under the National Service Scheme (NSS) to form Red Ribbon’s Clubs (RRC).
The main aim of these clubs will be to spread awareness about various social issues and mainly about AIDS among the youth as well as in rural areas.
The college principal will be the president of the club and the NSS co-ordinator of the college will be his deputy, with student members. There will also be two social workers, including one medical practitioner. The team will have a total of 50 students from each college.
Dr Shakera Inamdar, NSS chief, UoP said, “The main aim of the RRC will be to spread awareness about HIV and AIDS. Each college has an adopted village, so during the camps, these students will visit their adopted villages and talk to them about the disease. Also, they will try to create awareness in the areas around their respective college campuses.”
The groups will use the means of street plays, presentations and posters to convey their message. “Apart from plays and presentations, we will also hold debates, essay writing competitions and exhibitions. We are also trying to involve the faculties of different departments in the program,” added Inamdar.
The main aim of the team will be to remove the queries of people regarding the disease. “There is a growing awareness about the disease in the urban population but there are still many misconceptions about it in the rural areas. We will try to clarify these doubts with the counselling sessions of the RRC,” said Inamdar.
As many as 45,000 students are a part of the NSS. The university will also assess the performance of each group.
“After every three months, we will take a record of each colleges performance and see how much of an effect the sessions have had on the areas they covered and they will be assessed according to that,” added Inamdar.
Each college has already been asked to form the groups and they have been given time up to the first week of November. The groups will start organising their camps from December 1.
