Runa Laila to tour New Delhi

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 30 July 2013, 12:15 PM
Updated : 30 July 2013, 12:15 PM

Singing diva Runa Laila will tour New Delhi on Thursday and Friday on her first visit as a ‘SAARC Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS’.

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry says she will join Indian officials, singers and celebrities in ‘a sensitization programme’ and visit treatment and support centres for people living with HIV/AIDS.

She will also call on the Indian ministers for health, and external affairs, and meet the press.

The celebrated signer is the first Bangladeshi to be nominated a SAARC Goodwill Ambassador.

Runa received her nomination letter in April from Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.
After receiving her nomination, the singing icon told journalists that she would work with the other ambassadors for raising awareness and generating support in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
The Secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in a meeting in January selected Runa, Bollywood actor Ajay Devgan and Pakistan’s Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as Goodwill Ambassadors for HIV/AIDS.
The designation was introduced in January 2008 to raise awareness about the disease.
The World Bank estimates between 5.5 million and 6 million people are infected with HIV in South Asia – 60 percent of them in India.
India’s eminent actress and social activist Shabana Azmi was the first Goodwill Ambassador.
According to the SAARC Secretariat, the Committee picked up the Goodwill Ambassadors from the nominations sent by the member states.
They consider “regional stature and eminence, appeal to the target audience, relevance in delivery of message, likely commitment of the candidate and innovative ways that could be utilised in promoting advocacy and awareness in combating HIV/AIDS”.