Actor Richard Gere Opens Home in India for Women and Children With AIDS

Actor Richard Gere on Wednesday opened a home in New Delhi, India, for women and children who are living with AIDS, Reuters Health reports. The home was established by Gere's Initiatives Foundation and the Naz Foundation Trust, an Indian AIDS awareness volunteer group. Gere said he wanted to increase awareness about HIV/AIDS and help curb the spread of the disease in India, which has the second-highest reported number of people living with the disease in the world, according to Reuters Health. "We have been through this in America. We have seen this happen. ... We made all the mistakes possible and many people died because we didn't know what needed to be done," Gere said, adding, "I love India and I am very close to people in India and I don't want to see India make the same mistakes that [the U.S.] has made" (Reuters Health, 12/18). A kaisernetwork.org HealthCast of a symposium on AIDS in Asia, sponsored by amfAR and the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, at which Gere spoke, is available online.