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1st
Karma Award Ceremony
PCI/India
presented its first ever Karma Award on May
24, 2007 at the Taj Palace Hotel. The ceremony
recognized the sponsors and contributors whose
hard work and financial support made PCI/India’s
AIDS Walk for Life successful.
However,
PCI thought it was appropriate to create a
special award to commemorate the Walk and
future efforts by an individual or organization
that has made an extraordinary contribution
to eradicating poverty and disease in India
and named it the Karma Award. The word karma
comes from the Sanskrit root “kri,” to
do. Karma has come to mean the law of cause
and effect, action and reaction; in other
words, what you sow, so shall you reap. There
were many sowers of good seeds at the ceremony,
including NACO, CDC, UNAIDS, USAID, Boeing,
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, PSI and
CRS, but PCI chose to honor Scott Bayman,
who single-handedly galvanized the private
sector behind the Walk.
Mr.
Bayman, as a representative of GE, was the
first to commit a substantial sum to the AIDS
Walk and then personally contacted numerous
corporations and foundations to appeal for
their support. In addition to GE’s financial
support, GE Elfun Volunteers actively participated
in the Walk and provided assistance in Delhi,
Mumbai, Jaipur, Bangalore and Chennai by generously
contributing snacks, toiletries and other
items.
The
AIDS Walk, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt
March against British imperialism, was an
enormous success in terms of raising awareness
about HIV/AIDS and promoting risk-reduction
behavior and more humane treatment of people
living with HIV/AIDS. During the year-long
journey, core walkers distributed on average
3,900 educational leaflets and 2,600 condoms
each day. Over 500 partner organizations,
in collaboration with walkers, conducted an
average of ten AIDS awareness events daily
with a total of 3,874 awareness events and
a total of 880,900 people in attendance. In
addition, 11,921 people received general health
care and 386,759 people were counseled en
route by the walkers. The Walk directly reached
an estimated 2 million people, covered 13
states of India and over 300 cities, towns
and villages, and reached out to and had direct
interaction with many poor villagers in rural
areas, including many women and children,
who had little prior knowledge of HIV/AIDS.
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Left to right: Mohamad Samee Nazar(PCI/India,Walker),
Henry Alderfer (PCI/India Country
Director) and Dr.S.Y Quraishi
(Election Commissioner) present the
1st Karma Award to Scott Bayman |
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