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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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