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Indian brothers pedal from Canada to Mexico for AIDS awareness

Agence France-Presse - August 3, 2008


MEXICO CITY, Aug 3, 2008 (AFP) - A pair of Indian brothers arrived in Mexico City Sunday after cycling across North America from Toronto, Canada, to bridge the gap between two International AIDS Conferences and raise awareness.

The pair, supported by an Indian-Canadian non-governmental organization, pedaled some 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) over 50 days to end up in Mexico City at the start of the six-day world AIDS conference.

"The idea came to us after the previous world conference in Toronto. We met a couple of crazy cyclists who had crossed Europe and Japan in search of good beer. They inspired our trip to Mexico," one of the brothers, Surya Markala, told AFP.

Surya and his brother, Giri, work with B'Care, a grassroots organization in both India and Canada, to prevent further transmission of HIV/AIDS through education and awareness.

On their arrival in the Mexican capital, they joined a demonstration of several hundred people calling for universal access to antiretroviral drugs.

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