By Anita Chatterjee

MTV has recently launched their Staying Alive Campaign and none other than Gym Class Heroes band member, Travis McCoy, joined in on the team as the 2009 Ambassador.

The campaign was started in 1998 and is designed to educate the public about the AIDS/HIV epidemic spreading across the world. Staying Alive has spread the message of its prevention campaign with the help of various celebrity endorsements such as Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Rowland, P. Diddy and now the Gym Class Heroes' front man.

With Staying Alive, Travis had the recent opportunity to visit India, as well as South Africa and the Philippines. Check out DesiHits! interview with Travis McCoy as he talks about his life-changing experience and his opinions on the AIDS epidemic in India.

Did this trip meet all of your expectations?
Yeah, yeah it did. I was definitely very lucky. I’d say to go on a trip like this to meet all the people I met.

You said that the campaign was pretty close to your heart.  So what inspired you?
Being in the position I’m in and the fact that I am impressionable on kids my age and a little older than me. The fact is that if I can influence a kid to wear a type of shoe or dress a certain way, then I can hopefully get a kid to practice safe sex or buy a box of condoms, you know…

When I was young I lost someone close to me from AIDS and, you know, not that I haven’t been affected by lung cancer and other diseases like that, but because of the stigma at the time and when this person died I was just like, 'Wow.' I didn’t really understand how these things worked at the time; it’s almost kind of all the guilt that came along with it at the time.

So what are your thoughts on this organization?
I definitely feel a close kinship with this type of organization.

How did you feel about campaigning in different countries?
I was nervous at first. I had never been to any of the three countries and the last thing I wanted was people to think that I was coming to shoot about how horrible things were because of the AIDS epidemic occurring there.

What message do you have for people about this epidemic?
I think people concentrate on the horrible stuff and I want people to concentrate on the hope and not all the stigma.

Is there anything in particular that affected you?
The South African people really affected me. I went there and people were expressing their huge problem with AIDS and with running water and everything else.  I wanted people to know from day one that I was there to learn about the disease and about the epidemic in their country. I wanted as much information as I could get.

Tell me about your experience in India.
It was amazing. Everyone was so welcoming and there were kids playing and I got this overwhelming and warm feeling of being welcomed. After I met Mandakini Behara(AIDS activist) and her crew, they put on a show that included photography and there was dancing. Her story was one of the more heartwarming stories I experienced while I was traveling. She went through hell and back and day after day she selflessly puts herself out there to help young girls who are going through what she went through.

What is the greatest thing that you saw during your travels to India?
[There are] horror stories that people have to go through with their families or with the people around them and how they live in some areas, but also at the same rate the effect it has on kids. They face such adversity but they are still smiling and running around. Knowing how intense things are around them, they’re more concerned with doing the things that kids do.

"I think people concentrate on the horrible stuff and I want people to concentrate on the hope and not all the stigma."

Are children in India different from children in the states?
These kids didn’t have computers, laptops, and video games and I wondered what would happen if you took these things away from kids here in the states. I figured they would completely go crazy. I did some research and found a video on youtube of a kid whose mom took his subscription away from some computer game. The kid completely flips out and slams his head in the wall and I was like "Yeah, I guess I was right."


Were you ever angry about the social stigma that people have to face with AIDS in general in India?
Of course!  I think I was angry at the fact that these were grown ass people who still had these stigmas. These people in their early 20’s still think that you can contract AIDS through hugging or kissing someone. It’s just the lack of education that is everywhere you know with everyone, but there’s still the hope that younger kids that have the power to help and want to help those people that are stigmatized with HIV/AIDS.
   
What needs to be done?
I spent most of my time with Mandakani Behara and based on what I saw that she was doing, I think the main thing is kind of making the topic not so taboo, make it something that people aren’t afraid to bring up, aren’t afraid to talk about, and make it more open so people want to talk about it, and come out and be tested. The fact that she has people talking is a start.

What kind of places did you get to see?
We stayed in Mumbai  , but I didn’t get to really go out and see the country. It was kind of a race against time, to see 3 countries in about a week.

Did you have any expectations about any of the countries?
I don’t think I had any expectations about any of the countries aside from the pictures and stuff. However, each country I went to welcomed me with open arms.

Would you like to visit India again?
India’s definitely a place I would like to go back to and experience a little bit more.

Tell us about the song you are writing about your experiences.
I am writing a song for Staying Alive, which will be premiered on Dec 1st. It’s basically taking a lot of my experiences on this trip and putting it into the song and hopefully representing it well without going against my artistic integrity you know.

Do you think this was a life changing trip?
This trip was definitely a huge, huge life changing experience for me and I definitely think it’s going to have a huge impact on my music as well. I guess we’ll see how this impacts my writing next month.

After all you learned, what can you teach the public?
Educate yourself! It’s in our own hands go to a library and pick up a book. The more you educate yourself the more you’ll be able to not be stigmatized and not freak out if you or someone you know might have HIV/AIDS.

Do you have any last comments or words of inspiration for our readers?
The more people we have to reach and the more people that want to help, the more prepared we’ll be to take on this epidemic.