The story about the fight against HIV/AIDS cannot be complete without the mention of 32-year-old Somen Debnath, who is on a round-the-world expedition on bicycle to help spread awareness and understanding of the scourge.

Setting out on May 27, 2004, from Basanti village located in the Sundarbans in India’s West Bengal State, the health crusader is now in Douala, Cameroon, the 106th country in his epic expedition.

The cyclist is pedalling across national borders with his most important message being prevention as the most effective weapon against HIV/AIDS. Somen, who came in from Equatorial Guinea on September 15, 2015, for a 15-day tour of Cameroon, was received by the Indian Consul to Douala, J. Ravikumar.

During the cyclist’s first sensitization session on September 18, 2015 with students of the Saint Jerome Catholic University in Douala, the diplomat encouraged the spirit of adventure and pledged the support of the Consulate to ensure a fulfilled cycling tour in the city.

Somen encouraged the students to start a chapter on HIV/AIDS awareness programme. He intends to use other sessions in Yaounde and Douala to promote the use of needles and syringes among drug-addicted people. He is earmarking 60 per cent of the proceeds garnered during his 16-year-long odyssey for the Global Village Project in Calcutta, India.

The cyclist’s target is to earn one Dollar, one Euro or one Pound Sterling for each of the estimated 200,000 kilometres that will be covered before the global jaunt comes to an end in his native Basanti on May 27, 2020.

The cyclist experienced his toughest challenge during his journey to Afghanistan where he was kidnapped by armed Taliban militants and held captive for 24 days. He was blindfolded, tied onto a chair and flogged.

To prove his actual identity, he prepared Indian curry for the militiamen and was left off the jaws of death. Somen plans to pedal to 191 countries. So far, he has used seven bicycles, three of which were stolen, three sent back to his museum in India and is now using the seventh.

Having already spent 4,000 days, the young Indian cyclist has travelled 123,000 kilometres, including 35 countries in Africa and the Middle East. He got inspiration for his mission at the age of 14 when he read an article entitled “AIDS is Deadlier than Cancer.” From Cameroon, the cyclist intends to move to Central Africa.