Articles form the Sixteenth International AIDS
conference in Toronto August 2006
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Getting into Gere
It wasn't movie star power that touched young people during
a chat with Richard Gere about AIDS and HIV. It was the actor's passion about the issues.
Aug. 14, 2006.
LWYNNE GWILT
ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
The spotlight shone on 48 youth involved in a film project for the International AIDS Conference yesterday, despite the fact a
passionate dialogue on AIDS issues was headed by silver-screen fox Richard Gere.
From the start of the chat on issues ranging from AIDS prevention to Stephen Harper, Gere and actor wife Carey Lowell made
it clear the conversation was not about them but about how they could help the youth who will make films over 48 hours about
HIV/AIDS topics.
"I don't really like giving speeches, so why don't you ask some questions so I know what you really want to talk about?" said
the white-bearded Gere right off the start.
Both he and Lowell are HIV/AIDS activists. Part of Gere's foundation, Healing the Divide, works on projects in India that aim
to reduce stigmatization and increase awareness of HIV/AIDS. He and Lowell spent 30 minutes yesterday afternoon chatting
with the youth in the Community Dialogue Space of the Metro Convention Centre about how they can help bring HIV/AIDS
issues to the forefront in their countries.
"In India, (many orphans) love cricket so we got cricket stars to do public service announcements ... and that really had a
large effect," said Gere to one youth from Uganda who asked how younger generations can be taught the importance of
HIV/AIDS early on and become productive citizens.
"And the investment that one can make in any kid is education. It gives them a sense of themselves, a sense of solidness and
being in their own skin, an understanding of how they fit into the world and a sense of confidence in themselves."
"The best thing you can do for them is to give them a voice ... and empower them to tell their own stories," added Lowell.
"That touches a lot of people."
For many, the issue was also about why more celebrities are not involved in activism, since their voices are often listened to by
youth around the world.
"There are many celebrities who do this kind of work, but it wasn't always that way," said Gere, who will also speak at a
"Media and AIDS" panel this evening. "That was one of the problems of getting the problems of HIV/AIDS known, is that no
one would be even associated with the word.
"We had a president, Ronald Reagan, who never spoke the word AIDS ... and that pervaded all of our society, we had no
leadership. So these things begin from the top, don't they?"
Perhaps the most poignant remark for Canadians came from Catherine Renaud, a 19-year old from Whitby, Ont., who brought
up Stephen Harper's refusal to attend the conference.
"A lot of us feel abandoned ... people have spent their entire life savings to be a delegate in this conference ... it's demonstrating
to us a huge lack of support and him (not) viewing the HIV/AIDS issue as a primary issue," said Renaud to applause. "I was
wondering what your view is on the Prime Minister not taking (the time to be here)?"
"I don't know your Prime Minister, but let me tell you about ... Prime Minister Singh in India," said Gere. "We went to see him
and he reiterated it was one of the most important things for us to deal with. We said, `We'd like to have a media summit of all
the media in India,' and he said, `That's wonderful, where would you like to have it?' We said `We would like it at your
residence ... and we'd like you to be there the entire day.' And that's what he did ... heads of all the media in India were there
presided over by (Singh), discussing and making commitments.
"Now that is leadership, not what you have here."
"I do hope someone can approach our Prime Minister and get the same results," said Renaud.
"Absolutely. You have to keep working on it, but if he doesn't change don't re-elect him, that's what you can do," replied Gere
to applause.
Chosen from more than 1,000 applicants, the 48 youth from countries as diverse as Armenia and Guyana will be split into eight
teams of eight, and given two days — starting today at 4 p.m. — to write, shoot and edit a three-minute film that will be
screened and judged at MTV headquarters Thursday night. Many are medical students who have never used a camera, and
questions inevitably arose about how to make a good film and be a strong actor.
"I've been reminded that I am a western youth and I come from a lot of power and privilege ... I don't know how I'd have any
right portraying someone who's so different from me," said Andrea Yip, 20, from Calgary. "How do you step into a role you're
so disconnected with?"
"All of us have experienced, to some degree, a little bit of everything," said Gere. "We've all been sad, we've all lost people,
we've all been angry, we've all done horrible things. We've basically had the same experience as every other being, so that's an
easy thing to draw upon."
By the end, Gere was thanking the youth for their work, not the other way around.
"The world is always changed by the youth, always ... you have ultimate power," said Gere, adding he learned this as a child of
the '60s. "Now if you can do it with generosity, with real love, with real understanding, then the transformation is joyous.
"If you can educate kids, they know how to educate (their peers) on a subject and that change then becomes organic ... there's
nothing imposed from outside and that's when real change can happen. So I wish you a lot of luck; thank you for doing this."
Monday
14 August 2006
18:00 - 20:00
Special session
Media and AIDS: Spreading Information Faster than the Disease
[SR 5]
Media and AIDS: Spreading Information Faster than the Disease MOSS02
Type: Special session Back
Venue: Session Room 5
Interpretation: None
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Code: MOSS02
Moderators: Richard Gere, United States
William Roedy, United Kingdom
Richard Gere, celebrated actor and activist, will open a session on the critical role of media in raising awareness,
changing attitudes, and fighting stigma. Moderated by Bill Roedy of MTV International, this panel of broadcast
executives and a leading AIDS advocate will discuss the mobilization of the media industry following the 2004
launch of the Global Media AIDS Initiative by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a special meeting organized
by the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS. Among the most notable outcomes are major new media
coalitions and public awareness campaigns that have emerged in Africa, the Caribbean, India and Russia.
Media executives from these regions will preview campaign materials and share key challenges and
achievements in their expanded response to HIV/AIDS. Panelists will also discuss models of partnership between
local organizations, government institutions, and media companies that have led to well-coordinated and
highly-leveraged campaigns.
Presentations in this session:18:00
MOSS0201 High level panel discussion
Allyson Leacock, Barbados
Solly Mokoetle, South Africa
Peter Mukerjea, India
Vladimir Pozner, Russian Federation
Phill Wilson, United States
AIDS 'true terrorist on planet today' says Gere
Tue. Aug. 15 2006
Actor Richard Gere took centre-stage at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto Monday, calling HIV/AIDS
the "true terrorist on the planet today."
At a news conference to announce a TV public-service campaign in India, Gere said raising awareness via the
country's 70 million TV sets was one of the best hopes for stopping the spread of the disease.
Gere also said he hoped India does not make the same mistakes the United States did in dealing with the
epidemic.
"It is deeply important to me that India not make the mistakes we made in America," Gere told the news
conference.
"We had no leadership. We didn't take it seriously and hundreds of thousands of people died who didn't have to."
The Heroes Project, in partnership with STAR India television, is raising awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention
which Gere hopes will stem the increase of new infections.
A report released by India's Registrar-General and Census Commissioner estimated that about 11 million people
in India could die of AIDS-related illnesses by 2026.
Based on demographic trends, the report said an additional five million children who might not be born as a result
of the early deaths of HIV-positive women could be "missing."
Gere, 56, said that if the TV public service campaign can keep India's rate of new infections from spiking up from
the current one per cent of the population, "there's a good possibility that we're not going to see the 10 million or
20 million more Indians die."
Asked how he went from being an officer and a gentleman -- referring to the 1982 movie he starred in -- to
becoming a hero, Gere said that anyone who focuses on HIV/AIDS is a hero.
"I'm not a 26-year-old boy any more,'' he said. "And I look at my life and I have to make some hard decisions
about what I can be effective at, being meaningful in the remaining years that I do have, and I distilled that down
to several subjects.
"And probably the most important for me was HIV/AIDS."
African-American leaders
Meanwhile, African-American leaders said it was time for their community to "to face the fact that AIDS has
become a black disease" and find ways to defeat it, said the chairman of the NAACP at the conference Monday.
Julian Bond, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other African-American leaders called on their own community to accept
responsibility for ending the devastation of AIDS, which has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 black
Americans during the past 25 years.
"Because of poverty, ignorance and prejudice, AIDS has been allowed to stalk and kill black America like a serial
killer," said Jackson in a statement.
"The story of AIDS in America is mostly one of a failure to lead and nowhere is this truer than in our black
communities," said Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.
"We have led successful responses to many other challenges in the past. Now is the time for us to face the fact
that AIDS has become a black disease."
The U.S. black delegation pledged to draft a five-year plan to reduce HIV rates among African-Americans and to
boost the percentage of those who get tests and learn their HIV status.
Clinton to speak
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will join UN special envoy Stephen Lewis on Tuesday to talk about the need for
global leadership in response to HIV/AIDS as the conference continues.
Meanwhile, the Conservative government has not yet announced whether it will extend the legal exemption that
permits Vancouver's safe injection site to operate. That exemption expires Sept. 12.
The facility serves the estimated 4,000 to 5,000 IV drug users who live in a concentrated area of Vancouver's
Lower Eastside.
Federal Health Minister Tony Clement postponed his scheduled press conference at the AIDS conference
Monday, but a spokesperson said it was not related to deliberations over the future of the safe injection site.
Clement is set to deliver his speech Tuesday.
The 16th annual AIDS summit has drawn more than 24,000 researchers, activists and health workers from 132
countries to Toronto -- marking the 25th anniversary of the first reported cases of HIV.
Since then, nearly 65 million people have been infected with the virus globally and AIDS has killed more than 25
million people
Sun, August 13, 2006
Gere on disease: 'We can beat this'
It is a colourful tapestry, stitched by the women and men of a small South African village ravaged by AIDS.
Within the artwork, unveiled last night behind the altar of Toronto's St. James Cathedral, lies the hope for a cure
for HIV and AIDS, actor and activist Richard Gere said.
Called the Keiskamma Altarpiece, the artwork, named for a South African river, took more than six months to
create using embroidery, beadwork, wire sculpture and photography.
Created by more than 120 women and four men who lost family members to AIDS, Gere said the "beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful" tapestry shows the kinds of magic that can happen when communities work together.
"It's really how a disease like HIV/AIDS is going to be cured," said Gere, in town for the AIDS conference.
"Everybody embracing the problem ... we can beat this."
Icons, media key to reducing stigma of disease, Gere says
Actor Richard Gere says his involvement in AIDS began in the early 1980s when Rock Hudson revealed he was
HIV-positive. 'It was the first time in America we took (the disease) seriously.'
Published: Tuesday, August 15, 2006
TORONTO - Cultural icons and entertainment media are key to educating people about HIV/AIDS and reducing
the social stigma attached to the disease, actor Richard Gere told a packed session at the International AIDS
Conference yesterday.
AIDS and rights activist Mr. Gere said his involvement in AIDS began in the early 1980s, when actor Rock
Hudson shocked the U.S. with news that he was HIV-positive.
"I remember that moment when Rock Hudson came out," he said. "Not only was he gay, but he was HIV-positive
and dying of AIDS. It was such a shock to the system in America. ... It was the first time in America we took (the
disease) seriously."
Mr. Gere co-founded the Heroes Project in India two years ago. The project has focused on embedding AIDS in
the plots of popular dramas, game shows and soap operas.
"An icon in itself is pretty useless; but if you marry it with media companies and use intelligence and skill -- and
tell the truth and do it authentically -- you can be incredibly powerful in messaging and education," Mr. Gere
said.
Elizabeth Taylor inspired Richard Gere's AIDS campaign Washington, Aug 16: When it comes to the battle
against AIDS, no one has been a bigger inspiration to Richard Gere than the actress Elizabeth Taylor.
The Oscar winning actor was talking to reporters from South Africa, India, Russia and the Caribbean when he
praised actress Elizabeth Taylor for being one of the first A-List stars to raise awareness about the deadly
disease.
Talking about Taylor’s work, the ‘Pretty Woman’ star said that she had managed to ‘cut to the centre of the
culture’ like no one else.
"There was another cultural icon, who just cut to the centre of the culture very quickly, very directly. And I think
it was in many ways an inspiration to me. What I would do later on is work with people who had that ability to cut
through very quickly and very deeply into the heart of a culture," Contactmusic quoted him, as saying.
Gere also revealed that another Hollywood celebrity to inspire him to raise awareness about AIDS was the
legendary late actor Rock Hudson who died of the disease in 1985.
Gere promotes AIDS awareness
Richard Gere has told an AIDS conference in Toronto that the media — from the chief executives of TV
networks to the cultural icons of Hollywood and Bollywood — must fight the disease by using their enormous
reach into people's hearts and homes.
Gere, a longtime AIDS activist and founder and director of Healing the Divide and the Heroes Project in India,
joined media giants from India, the Caribbean, South Africa and Russia on Monday to promote the use of AIDS
awareness campaigns in TV programming.
The 56-year-old actor said he was inspired by Rock Hudson, who died of AIDS in 1985, and Hudson's good
friend Elizabeth Taylor, one of the first Hollywood stars to becomeinvolved in anti-AIDS campaigns.
Gere said of Taylor's work: "There was another cultural icon, who just cut to the center of the culture very
quickly, very directly. And I think it was in many ways an inspiration to me.
"What I would do later on is work with people who had that ability to cut through very quickly and very deeply
into the heart of a culture."
Gere, a follower and friend of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has made many trips to India. Two
years ago, he helped launch the Heroes Project with grants from his own foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
The group worked with TV executives in India to produce public service announcements using cultural icons
such as Bollywood's Amitabh Bachchan, as well as soap operas with HIV-positive characters, documentaries
and talk shows
TORONTO (CP) - Richard Gere says a TV network's public service program in India about preventing
HIV/AIDS is one of the best hopes for stopping the spread of the disease in that country.
"It's the true terrorist on the planet today," the New York actor said of the pandemic that has killed 25 million
people and infected an estimated 40 million worldwide.
The Heroes Project, in partnership with STAR India television, is raising awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention
via the TV sets of an estimated 70 million people, Gere told a media briefing at the International AIDS
Conference on Monday.
"I've seen all the mistakes made in America," said the silver-haired and bearded celebrity, referring to the
early years, in the 1980s, of the HIV epidemic.
"I deeply love India and I will continue to deeply love India. And it's deeply important to me that India not make
the mistakes that we made in America - where we had no leadership, we didn't take it seriously and hundreds
of thousands of people died who didn't have to."
Gere, 56, said that if the TV public service campaign can keep India's rate of new infections from spiking up
from the current one per cent of the population, "there's a good possibility that we're not going to see the 10
million or 20 million more Indians die."
"That's the reason we do this work," said Gere, whose charitable organization supports HIV/AIDS programs in
the south Asian country.
STAR India has made a minimum three-year commitment to providing content about preventing HIV/AIDS
transmission and discouraging Indians from stigmatizing those infected with the virus.
The messages aren't restricted just to commercial spots, but have been incorporated into program content,
including HIV-positive characters in prime-time dramas and comedies, said STAR India CEO Peter Mukerjea.
"I had a sort of corporate as well as a moral duty to try and support something as best as I could," said
Mukerjea. "As a media company, the most effective thing we could do was use our platform and reach out to
the millions of people who watch television shows every evening with messaging that was going to connect
with them - in a society which is extremely sensitive to the subject as a whole."
Gere said STAR India had taken enormous risks as a corporation in getting on board the HIV/AIDS campaign.
"Without this relationship, we could not have begun the work we were doing in India."
Asked how he went from being an officer and a gentleman - referring to the 1982 movie he starred in - to
becoming a hero, Gere said that anyone who focuses on HIV/AIDS is a hero.
"I'm not a 26-year-old boy any more," he mused. "And I look at my life and I have to make some hard decisions
about what I can be effective at, being meaningful in the remaining years that I do have, and I distilled that
down to several subjects.
"And probably the most important for me was HIV/AIDS."
Richard Gere meets Red Ribbon Award finalists
Toronto, 13 August - Hollywood star and HIV activist Richard Gere donned the Red Ribbon Award pin at the
AIDS 2006 conference in Toronto today, as he made an anticipated appearance at the community space
hosted by the twenty-five Award finalists.
The actor, who runs the India-based HIV/AIDS foundation Healing the Divide, was welcomed to the space by
two finalists from the PT Foundation Mak Nyah (Transgender and Transexual) Programme in Malaysia. It was
the second meeting between finalist Sulastri Ariffin and Gere, who first met two years ago at the last
international AIDS conference in Bangkok.
Mr. Gere was participating in an MTV training session for young film makers on HIV and AIDS, which took
place in the Red Ribbon Award community dialogue space.
Sulastri and her community colleague Roslan Hamzah (Salina), who work to empower transgender and
transsexual people and support sex workers and others living with HIV, represent a little-known team of HIV
experts: local people battling the growing global epidemic in their own cities and villages.
The Red Ribbon Award: Celebrating Community Leadership and Action on AIDS recognises that communities
have developed innovative and practical responses to the growing HIV pandemic, often in the face of war,
genocide, and extreme poverty.
Between August 12 and 18, their inspirational stories will be brought to light at the community dialogue space
at the Toronto AIDS 2006 conference, the world’s largest forum on HIV and AIDS. Five winning communities
will be announced at a gala dinner on Wednesday, 16 August. UNDP is leading on the Red Ribbon Award on
behalf of the UNAIDS family and other partners.
More details of the real-life stories of these communities and the challenges they face in responding to the HIV
epidemic are available at: www.redribbonaward.org.
MEDIA INQUIRIES: To set up interviews with the community representatives before or during the conference,
or to confirm attendance at the Red Ribbon Award dinner, please contact: Ms. Niamh Collier-Smith, UNDP New
York: + 1 212 906 6111, niamh.collier@undp.org or, in Toronto: + 1 917 213 0671, newsroom.bb1@undp.org
Broadcast-quality footage of the communities at work in Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and
Ukraine will be available. For broadcast-related inquiries, please contact Boaz Paldi, UNDP New York: e-mail:
boaz.paldi@undp.org
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