AIDS telethon collects more than MAD 20 million

[sbs]

The Moroccan Association against AIDS (l'association marocaine de lutte contre le Sida) (ALCS), in cooperation with the second Moroccan channel 2M, has organised a telethon to raise funds in favour of VHI carriers in Morocco. The telethon has succeeded to collect a record sum that exceeded MAD 20 million.

The event, organised as part of the association's campaign entitled “Sidaction Maroc 2005” organised between Dec.2 and 15, was broadcast live Friday evening on both Moroccan TV channels, Moroccan satellite channels: 2M Maroc and Al Maghribya, and 2M Radio Station.

The telethon included debates on various issues related to the disease with participation of Moroccan and foreign guests active in the field of fighting AIDS, experts, as well as music cinema, and sports stars.

Among the stars present in the event were actors Rachid El Wali, Mona Fettou (Morocco) and Yahya Fakharani (Egypt), singers Samira Said, Naima Samih (Morocco) and Marwan Khury (Lebanon), and Moroccan comedian Gad El Maleh, who later joined the operators in the call centre receiving donation promises to incite people to call.

The evening show also presented reportages including witnesses of people suffering from AIDS.

But the telethon was marked by the presence of Fatima, a HIV-positive who courageously accepted to take part in the telethon live in the studio without concealing her identity.

This was an unprecedented event in Morocco, where fear of shame and discrimination still haunts all those infected.

Fatima did not complain about her lack of financial means to treat her illness. Instead of talking about the disease and medicines, she stressed the victims' psychological suffering caused by discrimination.

“I came here to call people to change the harsh way they treat AIDS victims,” said Fatima who, in addition to her loss of sight, lost her family's affection and support.

“People suffering from AIDS need medicines, this is true. But they need love as well,” said Pierre Berger, president of Sidaction France.

Fatima's presence also attested for women's courage in facing the disease. The majority of witnesses who related their personal experience with AIDS were women.

Other female witnesses further showed how infected women suffer in society. One of them got the disease from her husband who died later on, leaving her with three children, also suffering from the disease.

“We're living in constant fear of death and of society. My relatives let me down after they discovered my illness,” she said, disappointed at being blamed and punished for a sin she did not commit.

“I did not reach for AIDS. AIDS came to my house,” she said.

The debate on Islam's view to the disease and to HIV positives also supported the idea that AIDS victims should not be rejected by society.

Ahmed Abbadi, Director of Islamic Affaires in the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, said that Islam has always called Muslims to visit ill people and support them. He stressed that being a HIV carrier has nothing to do with sinfulness.

Abbadi also refuted the idea that those calling young people to use condoms to avoid infection are encouraging extra-marital sexual relationships.

He confirmed the religious scholars' unanimous consensus that those who can not avoid illegal sexual relationships should, at least, use condoms to avoid the spread of the disease.

All along the evening show, a free phone number was made available to receive donation promises. Thousands of calls coming from Morocco and abroad were received by 100 operators working in the call centre.

According to Hakima Himmich, 58% of the sum collected will be used to buy medicines, 29% will be devoted to the maintenance of health centres, and 13% for prevention means.

Donations were received from individuals, as well as companies, laboratories, banks, and associations from Morocco and abroad.

Besides awareness and fund raising, the telethon transmitted a message of hope.

“The presence of AIDS in, Morocco and Africa should not be a reason to lose hope. Instead, this should push us to mobilise all our efforts to face the disease,” said Bernard Kouchner, founder of Medecins sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde.

[LalaMimi]

I watched some of it last night - I think they did rather well - they raised quite a lot of money - last night I left the total raised at about 4 million MAD.



Sidaction Maroc 2005