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Our programme initiatives > HIV and AIDS prevention in China
Removing the silence surrounding the HIV and AIDS epidemic in China
Wednesday 1 December was World AIDS Day. In China alone more than 1 million people are now living with HIV and AIDS. The country with the largest population in the world is experiencing one of the fastest infection rates. By 2010 it will reach ten million people unless the stigma surrounding the virus is tackled. VSO volunteers Liz and Brian van Wijk have incorporated education about HIV and AIDS into their teaching placements to break this silence.
Something to talk about
Coming from South Africa, where the AIDS pandemic has been devastating, VSO teachers Brian and Liz van Wijk were keen to get involved in HIV education during their placements at Gansu United University in Lanzhou, China. They designed seminars to give the full facts about HIV transmission and to share personal stories from people living with HIV and AIDS in China.
Brian and Liz approached student Yuan Shuai to work as an interpreter, but she soon became an integral part of the project, as Brian explains:
Having a fellow student help present the material creates a more relaxed atmosphere, as well as reducing the embarrassment felt by our first years – this is the first sex education many of them have received, even though they are in their early 20s.
Yuan Shuai, 22, is now so confident in speaking openly to her peers about HIV prevention that she recently chose this topic for an English speech competition – a very different picture from two years ago, when she faced criticism for challenging a social norm.
Students have responded enthusiastically to the seminars.
When I came home, I told my mother about education of AIDS,
wrote one.
She was very surprised, particularly [when] I said you introduced condoms to us. But fortunately, after I told her many people were dying in the world, she could accept. Now, she tells other people in her own way what is AIDS and how to keep it off.
Together Brian, Liz and Yuan Shuai have delivered 34 seminars over the past two years. And they are not alone in successfully weaving HIV prevention messages into their placements.
Since 2001 VSO volunteers have been integrating HIV and AIDS into their education work. We are looking to further develop elements of peer education. We recently named this the "The Dandelion Project" as the aim is that knowledge and skills on HIV protection will spread like a dandelion seed through the provinces we work in
explains Michelle Brown, director of VSO China.
The dandelion seeds are already on their way: Brian and Liz’s seminars have been adopted by other universities, while Yuan Shuai is planning to continue as a peer educator at North West Minorities University. She finds it particularly rewarding to see attitudes change among fellow students:
At first they thought I was mad, but now they are asking questions about if giving blood will spread HIV, and about kissing,
she says.
Some students even wanted to go to the biggest square in Lanzhou and share the knowledge with the people there.
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