A group of 15 Indian writers are participating in a new initiative sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that aims to open up a public dialogue about HIV/AIDS in India and abroad, The Hindustan Times reports (hindustantimes.com, 1/19).

The writers will visit communities and families that have been affected by HIV and AIDS to explore different aspects of the country’s epidemic.

“I met widows and orphans and will write about how life goes on despite HIV,” said one writer, Nalini Jones, from Bangalore.

The Gates Foundation hopes the writers’ works, which will be published in an anthology in August, will help to humanize the epidemic, reports the Times. Approximately 2.5 million Indians are living with HIV.