DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL COMMENDS FILM, EXHIBIT ON AIDS PANDEMIC, SAYS THEY WILL CONTRIBUTE TO KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING OF PROBLEM

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL COMMENDS FILM, EXHIBIT ON AIDS PANDEMIC,

SAYS THEY WILL CONTRIBUTE TO KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING OF PROBLEM

This is the text of remarks in New York yesterday (26 November 2002) by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette, to introduce the Rory Kennedy film and exhibition entitled ”Pandemic:  Imaging AIDS”:

I am delighted to welcome you to the United Nations for what promises to be a deeply moving event.  What we are about to see reminds us that statistics, reports and declarations don’t tell the full story of AIDS.

The story of AIDS is about people.  It is about people who are making a life for themselves.  It is about people whose stories may be filled with pain, but where hope always shines through.  Rory Kennedy has found many of these stories and brought them to us -- in a film, in a book and in a magnificent exhibition, part of which is on display here.

I salute her achievement, as well as the support that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and HBO have provided for the project, and the hundreds of hugely talented people who have contributed.  “Pandemic” is important because it connects people.  You can’t react to these images with indifference.  When the film is shown in living rooms, or people buy the book, a thread of humanity will be spun between them and the stories and images.  It is that thread of humanity which gives us all hope.

It tells us that we can do what it takes to defeat the epidemic. I congratulate all of you on your part in that endeavour.

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