Karuna Roy gets EH prize for AIDS work

[Guest guest]

Karuna Roy gets EH prize

Firdaus Ali. Friday, June 02, 2006 00:50 IST

TORONTO: Karuna Roy, coordinator, HIV/AIDS Programme, Synodical

Board of Health Services Church of North India (CNI), will receive

the prestigious 2006 E H award from the Presbyterian Church

in Canada.

The award ceremony will be held on Tuesday, June 6 in St

's, Ontario. Roy, a former teacher from New Delhi, is in

charge of several CNI awareness and prevention programmes for people

infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Roy has entirely designed and

formulated the CNI's HIV/AIDS programme which includes innovative

prevention programmes for school-aged children and the youth. She

also heads a programme that works with commercial sex workers along

one of India's busy highways.

Karuna Roy, who is currently in Toronto to receive the award, feels

it is a great honour to be recognised for her work in India. " This

award is a recognition for all frontline HIV/AIDS workers in India

and I accept the award on their behalf, " says Roy. " I will continue

to work for people living with HIV/AIDS, " she promises.

Due to the stigma attached to HIV/AIDS and people treating it as a

highly sexual infection, Roy feels that religious heads and faith-

based organisations must play a greater role in changing people's

attitudes around HIV/AIDS, especially those coming from the South

Asian Diaspora.

Roy uses innovative and creative techniques to spread awareness

about AIDS. With her skills of writing poetry, stories, skits,

lyrics and plays, she has produced a number of informative

educational pamphlets and communications materials for the HIV/AIDS

programme, including two audio and two video CDs. " I have also

written a qawalli on AIDS, which is very popular in India, " reveals

Roy, who is also the chairperson of the Council for World Mission

Working Committee of the AIDS Task Force Africa Region.

Previous recipients of the E H Award include Archbishop

Desmond Tutu (1993) and Barbara Jackman (1989).

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