Gere & The Heroes Project

[Guest guest]

Gere

Pam Das

It is not every day that one gets to do lunch with a Hollywood

heart-throb. But when I met Gere at the XVI International AIDS

conference in Toronto, Canada, the 56-year-old celebrity was wearing a

different hat—that of a tireless activist and campaigner. For more

than 25 years Gere has used his success and resources to bring attention to

important global issues, most notably HIV/AIDS.

Gere, who first went to India as a young man seeking spiritual guidance, is

engaged with efforts to bring cultural, social, and economic benefits to the

region. " It struck me 6 years ago that India was in a position in the AIDS

epidemic that the USA was 15–20 years ago, where the prevalence rate was below

1%. I deeply love India, and don't want it to make the same mistakes as

America " , he said, referring to the early years of the 1980s.

In 2004, in partnership with the Gates Foundation, Kaiser Family

Foundation, and the media company STAR India, Gere launched the Heroes

Project—a national initiative to reduce stigma and discrimination

through the mass media and programmes with societal leaders. " For me

there are power sectors that can bring about change; my community, the

media, is one of them. Cultural icons in India have a strong presence in Indian

society. Actors, musicians, and sports men and women are all

heroes. " The project partners media with industry and non-governmental

organisations.

" What about the government? " I ask. He sighs. " In my experience the government

is the slowest to change, but I find they usually follow along any moving train

that's successful. "

The project has engaged nearly 100 celebrities and trained some 500

writers and producers to create public service announcements (PSAs) that

incorporate HIV/AIDS story lines into mainstream television " soap

operas " and films. An estimated 70 million viewers have been

reached, and the project's award-winning PSAs have been shown more than 11 500

times in three languages. But to find out if the project is changing attitudes

Gere says " we need to do the follow-up science

and evaluate the impact. We have asked the Gates Foundations in our next

proposal. "

Guided by his Tibetan beliefs, Gere says his motivation comes from

Buddhist teachings. " There is this saying " , he says. " I will

release all sensual beings from pain and set them in a final place. "

For him the ultimate compassion one can express now is for this disease.

" In terms of my own life I have to see how I can be of value in my

remaining years. AIDS is the narrative of our times, more so than any of the

wars raging in the world right now. We will be defined by future generations on

what we did or did not do. "

Pam Das

The Lancet 2006; 368:1413,

DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69592-5