RALPH FIENNES - FIENNES MOVED BY INDIAN AIDS SUFFERERS' STRUGGLES

Movie star RALPH FIENNES has been moved by a low-key five-day UNICEF mission he undertook, during which he visited AIDS-ravaged villages in rural India. THE ENGLISH PATIENT told journalists in India earlier today (31JAN07) that he will never be able to forget the strength shown by the HIV-infected people he has met in the past week. Fiennes has been travelling through India on behalf of UNICEF, for whom he is an ambassador. He says, "What has moved me is not the tragedy or the shadow over these people, but the strength it brings out in them." Fiennes revealed many of the HIV-infected children he has met on his trip have been thrown out by their families once they learned they were HIV positive. He adds, "One young man had been tested without his knowledge and now he no longer sees his children or his wife. "Education, awareness and prevention are the key, but stigmatisation and exclusion from family is what makes people suffer most."