" Stub It Out " - The Hindu Metro Plus

It’s World No Tobacco Day on May 31 and Canstop has several events lined-up to create awareness about the hazards of smoking. The first is a Rock Show that will be held on May 24 where Chennai’s foremost international band Junkyard Groove , apart from popular bands such as Panatella and Gray Shack, will perform. Another major event for this year’s WNTD is a Photo Exhibition — something that hasn’t been done in Chennai before, but a great way of drawing attention to an issue that concerns everyone. The exhibition will feature Chennai’s leading photographers, including Sharad Haksar, Satyajit Dhananjayan and Sunder and will run for a week from May 30 to June 6. After this, the idea is to make it a travelling exhibition which will visit corporate venues, schools, colleges and exhibition spaces around the city. The exhibition venue is the Alliance Francaise.

Coinciding with it, Canstop plans to organise a theatre evening, titled ‘Smoke Signals’, featuring a play reading presented by the Madras Players. It will have tobacco awareness and advocacy as its core themes against a humorous background. It will incorporate excerpts from Longfellow, Wilde, Joyce and Lewis Carroll among others and is directed by Mithran Devanesan. Theatre personalities such as Freddie Koikaran and P. C. Ramakrishna will participate in the event which will be held on May 30 at the Chinmaya Heritage Centre auditorium.

Apart from these Canstop’s regular programmes include cancer screening camps, a sticker campaign against smoking which will be launched on May 31, and installing of anti-smoking visuals on buses. Counselling and screening services are also available for employees of various organisations on the need to kick the smoking habit. Those who are interested can also join Canstop’s soon-to-be-launched Quitters Club or youth league, Youth Can.

For more details contact the Canstop Helpline at 26284256 or visist www.canstop.org