Latest update May 10th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 23, 2017 News
– part of planned global awareness mission
By Sharmain Grainger
We have heard the message a thousand times and we are likely to hear it many more – that the prevention of a disease is better than its cure. But sometimes prevention is a little too late, and the only thing we can do is await a miraculous cure, while hoping that awareness will reduce the scourge of some prevailing diseases.
Although prevention is too late for many who have contracted the currently incurable Human Immunodeficiency Virus [HIV], Somen Debnath is on a mission to help save the others who have not yet been infected by this disease, while spreading a message of peace to those who are infected.
But Debnath is not merely taking advantage of social media which could help him send an instant global message via social media with the click of a button; instead he has chosen to travel the world by way of bicycle to achieve this colossal task.
Debnath, now 34 years old, is an Indian national who got his awakening about HIV after he read about one of his countrymen who contracted HIV and was abandoned by his family as a result. The neglected, infected man eventually died of complications of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome [AIDS], the advanced stage of HIV.
Barely 14 years old when he read the newspaper article titled ‘AIDS is more deadly than cancer’, which detailed the plight of the infected man, Debnath was understandably devastated and wanted to learn more about the disease. What he learnt essentially was the driving force that led to him conceptualising an idea of how he could raise awareness about the disease.
Debnath’s idea is to personally take the HIV prevention message to 191 countries of the world by 2020.
Moreover, his well-detailed mission in this regard started on May 27, 2004 with him cycling across the 28 States and five Union Territories of India. Debnath boasts of completing that leg of his mission in 2006 before heading over to Asia where he covered the 22 countries there between the period 2006 and 2009.
He also claims to have cycled through Europe between 2009 and 2012 and has made his presence felt even in the North Pole. Between 2012 and 2015, Debnath credits himself with cycling across 52 countries of Africa and eight Middle Eastern countries. His mission, he said, has even seen him cycling across 10 countries of South America, and even went to the South Pole.
He arrived in Guyana on July 12 and recently paid a visit to Kaieteur News. When asked, ‘Why cycle around the globe?’ he quickly quipped “because the world is my family.”
Sharing a bit about his journey to Guyana from Brazil via the Lethem road, Debnath confided that it was not the best, since he had to cycle across “some of the horrible, horrible, horrible and horrible road I have ever seen, and I have seen many roads of the world, but that [Lethem road] was one of the worst road in all of the world.”
“I kept positive thoughts and that helped me keep good faith which allowed me to make it here,” said Debnath who said that his Czech bike, the seventh since he started his journey, was able to withstand the dreadful thoroughfare.
But the hospitality that he has received since his arrival has been worth the trip, Debnath admitted. He expressed appreciation for all those who helped him along the way, including a man by the name of Mr. Chakraborty who accommodated him in Lethem, the officials of the Indian High Commission here who have been very supportive, and another gentleman by the name Mr. Suresh Narwani, who has been helping to accommodate him at a hotel.
According to Debnath, Guyana will make 133 countries that he has touched with his message since starting his mission. The self-taught multilingual, who is usually able to easily interact with persons wherever he goes, said that he has thus far been able to cycle more than 148,500 kilometres (a little more than 92,000 miles) since his journey started.
He said too that although he started his journey with $17 in his pocket, support has been very forthcoming once people are able to ascertain that his venture is noble and will have a lasting impact on the world.
But although his journey has allowed him to meet some of the happiest and kindest people of the world, it has not always furnished him with pleasant memories. There are some memories that he would much rather forget. He spoke of experiencing 24 days of captivity by a Taliban group in Afghanistan, being robbed six times in Central Asia, and even surviving murderous temperatures in some countries. But Debnath intends to soldier on to fulfil his awareness agenda.
Regarded as a Cultural Ambassador in his homeland, he reflected on how his HIV awareness mission really came alive after some intense training. He said that right after his curiosity about HIV/AIDS was evoked, he became a part of the AIDS Prevention and Control Society which falls under the auspices of the Government of India, where he secured special training on HIV Awareness. At the time he was 16 years old, and by the time his training was completed, he commenced focused Community Work on HIV prevention and awareness.
“I mainly gave lectures at colleges and universities about HIV and AIDS…I also visited sex workers and other people to give them condom promotions, basically things aimed at prevention,” said Debnath. His dedication was recognised by the Governments of India over the years which have not only endorsed his work but have given social support so that the mission could be sustained.
But it was after acquiring a degree in Zoology and the ‘Visarad’ degree in Fine Arts from the University of Calcutta in India, Debnath said that he decided to take his mission to the world. His extended biological family in India has been very supportive, he said.
His journey, thus far, which has been well chronicled in many leading newspapers of the world, has allowed him to meet six kings, 30 presidents and more than 70 Prime Ministers, and he hopes to shortly add President David Granger to the list of Heads of State that he has met.
More than just meeting influential people that can endorse and support his work wherever he goes, Debnath said that his main aim at the end of visiting each country is to ensure that he is able to leave a lifelong message about HIV/AIDS prevention and peace with young people, particularly those in college, universities and other such institutions, in the hope that they too could emulate his mission, even in some small way.
During his stay here, he hopes to reach out to various Government and Non Governmental organisations, especially the media, through which he can effectively reach a wide cross-section of Guyanese.
“I cannot reach to each and every house, but they can take my message to each and every heart that prevention is better than cure and we can each take this message to our families, to our communities, to our society, to our country and to the world.”
Debnath said that when he leaves Guyana, in a matter of days, he hopes to head to Suriname after which he will cover the Caribbean, Central and North America which he hopes to conclude by 2018. He then envisages heading to Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, New Zealand and Australia, before commencing the final leg of his journey, which will cover countries including: Sumatra, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and then back to India.
Based on his well devised plan, Debnath anticipates he will return to the land of his birth precisely on May 27, 2020.
Anyone desirous of reaching out to Somen Debnath can do so by way of Whatsapp using his mobile number +224 654 80944 1 or learn more about his mission via Facebook [www.facebook.com/somen2020globe], Twitter [twitter.com>worldsomen], or Instagram [www.pikore.com>somenworld].
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