Anand talks to Chennai schoolgirls about AIDS

Vishwanathan Anand, Grandmaster and HIV/AIDS ambassador for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Avahan Initiative, was bombarded with questions on AIDS and chess by high school girls during a talk here.

Anand, who hails from Chennai, was asked by the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS) to open a Red Ribbon Club at the Avvai Home School here.

The girls, from the orphanage and its school for poor children, also vied with each other to answer questions posed by Anand on HIV/AIDS. For every right answer they got an autographed chessboard from the Grandmaster!

The campaign was a runaway success.

Anand told IANS: "I am also learning about HIV/AIDS. I agreed to be an HIV ambassador for the Gates Foundation in April and this is my first actual interaction with high school kids."

Anand, who was virtually mobbed, was flooded with questions.

"...is it better to concentrate on studies or on sports?"; "What did you do during exams?"; "What do you think of HIV-AIDS?" - Anand seemed clearly overwhelmed with the questions.

Anand told the girls, "My mother taught me to play chess. But it was only during graduation that I began seeing chess as a career option."

On HIV/AIDS he told them, "I am reading up on HIV/AIDS. We should not fear touching an AIDS patient. Many of them live long and do well.

"I met a HIV positive person a few days ago and I realised he was just like us. These patients can be treated. Medications are available in the US, even in Tamil Nadu."

Supriya Sahu, chairperson of TANSACS, told IANS: "Two years ago, TANSACS took its AIDS awareness programme to high schools across the state and it now plans to have Red Ribbon Clubs - clubs in schools and colleges that disseminate information about HIV/AIDS, blood donations and related activities - in 9,400 schools."

As an Avahan ambassador Anand will engage in public awareness campaigns to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.

Happy with the response, Anand has promised such interactions in more schools.

(IANS)

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