Up
to 1,000 young people gathered here on Saturday night to dance as part of a
worldwide event aimed at drawing the attention of world leaders to the issue of
HIV/AIDS.

Enthusiasm reigns: Young people attend the dance4life programme at the American Club on Saturday. (Photos: VNS)

Local participants in
the dance4life programme gathered at the American Club on Ha Noi’s Hai Ba Trung
Street, and were linked by satellite to similar parties around the world, as
young people used their voices and their feet to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and
challenge the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.

Pop singers My Dung
and Minh Quan, comedians Xuan Bac and Tu Long, and the Big Toe Dance Crew,
together with model and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Vu Nguyen Ha Anh appeared at
the event.

Xuan Bac, a well-known
television celebrity, has been a supporter of the annual dance4life programme
since 2006.

“HIV and AIDS don’t
discriminate,” he said. “Anyone – me, you, everyone – can suffer from it. So I
realise that I myself need to live a healthy lifestyle and so do you…. We will
dance for better health, better moves, and a better life without HIV and AIDS.”

Winner: Pham Quynh Anh from Ha Noi’s Le Quy Don High School receives first prize for her painting There’s No Difference Between You and Me.

Dance4life Viet Nam is
a project of the World Population Foundation (WPF) with an estimated 9,000
students now involved.

“Without a doubt, this
is the greatest HIV prevention event that I have ever taken part in,” said
student Hoai Anh, a member of a dance team performing at the event. “It’s
exciting and very innovative. I always feel so happy when I join the team to
perform somewhere.”

A dance4life art
contest, with the theme this year of Living Together, also concluded on
Saturday, with first prize going to the painting There’s No Difference Between
You and Me by Pham Quynh Anh from Ha Noi’s Le Quy Don High School. Anh beat out
over 600 entrants from schools around the country.

Saturday’s event
received support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Durex
and Akzo Nobel Paints Viet Nam, in addition to the WPF. The international
programme was founded in the Netherlands in 2003.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News