The Sikkim State AIDS Control Society will hold soccer tournaments and music contests as part of a campaign

Gangtok, Nov. 11,TT: The Sikkim State AIDS Control Society will hold soccer tournaments and music contests as part of a campaign to generate awareness on HIV and drug abuse.

The Society launched the campaign, Red Fest, here today with the hope that it would be able to spread the message through football and music, two popular interests of the Sikkim youths.

“The goal of Red Fest is to spread awareness on the perils of HIV-AIDS and drug use and we aim to capitalise on music and sports to attract youths to our activities. We are primarily targeting the youths as 76 per cent of the HIV cases in Sikkim are reported from the age group of 19-39,” said Society project director Uttam Pradhan.

He said 228 people had contracted HIV in Sikkim since 1985 and 37 of them had died.

The Society’s information education and communication deputy director Raj Kumar Sharma said in the “open music competition”, auditions would be held at district levels, followed by semi-finals and the grand finale.

“The contest, Red Music, is open for all genres of music, but only bands can take part in it. The final will be held in due course of time,” he said.

Football, being the popular sporting activity in Sikkim, also figures in the Society’s strategy to reach out to the youngsters.

“At least 20 teams will play in the football tournament. There will be district-level preliminary matches and one top team from each district will make it to the semi-finals,” said Sharma.

The Red Fire football tournament would restrict the strength of each team to five players each and every match will be of 40 minutes duration. The Society will also conduct quiz, music events and skits in schools and colleges as part of the campaign that will end in February.

Sharma said the objective of the Red Fest was to create responsible youths who would not only be well-informed about HIV-AIDS but also be ready to get tested at any of the 13 integrated counselling and testing centres set up by the Society in Sikkim.

State health secretary Kumar Bhandari who launched Red Fest urged the Society to conduct a study after the campaign to find out whether the objectives had been achieved or not.