Georgian students marked World AIDS Day with a number of events on December 1, the same day the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) launched a free HIV testing and advice service in Georgia.

Medical students distributed “free hugs,” red ribbons, and information leaflets to passers-by on Tbilisi’s streets on Saturday, in a campaign sponsored by the Reproductive Health Initiative for Youth in the South Caucasus (RHIYC).

“We’re trying to get the message across to young people about the dangers of infection. We’re trying to help protect them,” a student activist told the Messenger.

Meanwhile, in Rustavi, a town 25 kilometers east of the capital, sports events and a folk concert co-organized by the World Food Program (WFP) promoted AIDS awareness and healthy living.

The Rustavi event was the culmination of weeks of WFP-sponsored seminars aimed at preventing “harmful habits” among Georgian young people.

Also on December 1, the UNDP in Georgia collaborated with the National Research Center for Infectious Diseases to set up centers in Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi and Zugdidi that will offer free testing facilities and advice on AIDS/HIV issues until December 16.

On November 30, representatives of a number of student organizations, including Tbilisi State University Students’ Union, held an AIDS conference, attended by United Nations Population Fund representatives and Gia Menabde, Rector of Tbilisi State Medical University.

“We have to support events like this. I welcome the initiative of students involved in such activities [that promote AIDS awareness],” Menabde commented.

AIDS has been on the increase in Georgia in recent years, and, according to figures released in November, the country currently has 1 454 cases of HIV. The majority of victims are aged between 29 and 40.

World AIDS Day was first conceived at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention in London.