|
The football World Cup is two years away and though the Indian team needn’t bother, school and college kids from Bengal could be a part of the “greatest show on Earth”, being held in the land of the samba.
All they need to do is brush up on their World Cup trivia and do some background reading on hepatitis B and C.
The initiative to take seven persons — including five students — from the state to Brazil has been taken up by the Liver Foundation, West Bengal, in association with a Brazilian NGO to spread awareness about liver diseases.
The arrangement is that two schoolchildren who win a quiz on hepatitis and World Cup football, one college student who writes the best essay on a hepatitis-related topic, a postgraduate student with the best campaign in the form of a documentary film or poster and a medical student who wins a state-wide debate will get free passage to Brazil.
Luis Francisco Gonzalez Martucci, director of the Brazilian NGO Ong C Tem Que Saber C Tem Que Curar, said football was a global language that would help spread awareness about the diseases in both countries.
“We will first organise competitions across Bengal to make people aware of the diseases and wipe out misconceptions. Then the winners of the competitions will come to Brazil for the World Cup and spread the message about the diseases,” Martucci said.
“Liver ailments are on the rise at the moment. The worst problem is that the symptoms (of hepatitis) manifest themselves very late. Hence the need to spread awareness about the diseases and what better vehicle that football to carry the message,” said Parth Sarathi Mukherjee of the Liver Foundation.
|
