Thanks to a young peer educators campaign, many young people in
Beijing have learned how to protect themselves from HIV, drug
addiction and unwanted pregnancies.
Sponsored by the All-China Youth
Federation and the United Nations Economics and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the three-year peer
educators project has trained more than 1,800 young migrant workers
on the issues of sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS
prevention.
"No longer simply a health problem, the HIV/AIDS pandemic is
becoming a development disaster, especially serious among young
people," said Ren Wei, a program director of the project and a
professor with China Youth University for Political Science in
Beijing.
Ren said the project's mission is to disseminate accurate
information about methods of HIV transmission, safe practices and
counseling services through informal education and networking in
order to reach students, young migrant workers, institutions and
communities.
The peer educators use such methods as group discussion, group
study, street surveys and life skill training to convey their
message
Since the main modes of HIV transmission in Asia-Pacific are
through heterosexual sex and injectable drug use, young people are
at the center of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. UNESCAP reports that more
than 50 percent of all new infections occur among people below 24
years of age.
Labor migration is one of the types of mobility that promotes
HIV transmission in the region, according to UNESCAP, making
education of China's millions of migrant workers an essential
task.
HIV/AIDS knowledge among the general public remains low
regardless of government efforts to promote and disseminate
information. A recent survey revealed that while 93 percent of
Chinese have heard of AIDS, only 8.7 percent have adequate
knowledge of its transmission and prevention.
The first HIV/AIDS case in China was reported in 1985. There are
now at least 840,000 HIV-positive people in the country, more than
65 percent of whom are aged between 16 and 29.
If effective and sustained prevention measures are not
implemented, China could have up to 15 million HIV/AIDS cases in
six years.
(China.org.cn, China Daily September 24,
2004)??