Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium, China Red Cross
Executive Director Jiang Yiman, and Olympic table tennis champion
Deng Yaping were joined by Li Xiang, a Chinese HIV carrier, in a
tree-planting ceremony at the Olympics construction site
Tuesday.
Li, together with a dozen Chinese HIV carriers, joined the
"Olympics with you and me" tree-planting event.
"It's not the first time I have attended this kind of public
activity," Li told Princess Mathilde when shaking hands with
her.
The 32-year Li became a HIV carrier after a blood transfusion
accident 13 years ago. In 2002, he founded China's first
non-governmental organization (NGO) "Mangrove" for HIV
carriers.
Another HIV carrier Meng Lin set up an information network
called "Ark of Love" in 2005. Over the past two years, he has
successfully provided medical services and developed capacity
building programs in HIV carrier communities.
Meng joined student volunteers to plant trees and took photos
with friends. "With more publicity about the AIDS/HIV awareness
campaign, more and more HIV carriers have faced up to the reality
and taken active steps to have a normal social life," he said.
Mukesh Kapila, special representative of the International
Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said
advanced medicine and technology would turn out to be failures if
discrimination against HIV-carriers cannot be overcome.
"Chinese society has tried hard to help marginalized people and
those who suffer discrimination," he said.
With the support of the Chinese Ministry of Health, "Mangrove"
has held exhibitions on AIDS/HIV awareness in more than 10 cities
in four Chinese provinces, attracting a total of 120,000 visitors,
HIV carriers, and volunteers.
"The situation has improved," Li said, "Yet some people still
believe that AIDS cannot affect them."
Statistics show that by Oct 31, 2006, China had reported more
than 180,000 AIDS/HIV cases, of which more than 40,000 are
confirmed AIDS patients.
"China is still facing great challenges posed by the AIDS
epidemic," Li said.
"Education is a social vaccine," Princess Mathilde cited the
remarks of UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot. As a psychologist
herself, she believes that "when people know how to prevent HIV,
they will understand that there is no need for stigmatization and
discrimination against people living with HIV."
She stressed that the theme of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games "one world, one
dream" reflects the universal values of the Olympic spirit --
unity, friendship, progress, harmony, and participation.
"These very values are also the ones that should guide us in all
our contacts with others, whatever their age, sex, ethnic origin,
or HIV-status," she said, stressing that people should use the
opportunity of the Olympics to inspire the younger generation to
pursue a more healthy life.
Presenting Princess Mathilde with a traditional Chinese
painting, Meng specially invited her to visit Beijing in 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2007)
