An increase in premarital sex in China has prompted government and community initiatives to provide more education on the sensitive issue.

"In a conservative society like China the majority of people are still embarrassed to talk about sex," explained Pan Guiyu, executive vice-president of China Family Planning Association (CFPA), one of the biggest non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country to the China Daily Tuesday. "But the reality is many young people begin to have premarital sex without having been properly educated on the subject."  

CFPA have just completed a five-year program with Washington-based PATH, an international non-profit NGO which aims to improve the health of people around the world, on the sexual and reproductive health of young people.

CFPA and PATH started a two-day seminar in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province Tuesday.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation the US$7 million project has attracted interest from around 5.8 million young people aged from 10 to 24 in 12 cities and two rural counties since September 2000.

The cities include Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shanghai and Harbin. The two counties are Shangcai County in Henan Province where there is a high incidence of AIDS which seems to be due to a lack of information on how the disease is transmitted and Peixian County in Jiangsu Province.

"We are trying a different approach to the issue," said Pan. "Instead of the 'I talk, you listen' scenario we've introduced international practices which allow young participants and their trainers to be actively engaged in activities like role-playing, games, dramas and discussions," he said.

CFPA's network, which has more than one million branches and 94 million members, provides education in several areas including adolescent health, the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, information on HIV, unwanted pregnancies and drug abuse to schools, the Armed Services, the general public and homosexuals.

The project has received local government support which has allocated more than 40 million yuan (US$5 million) to the scheme. According to CFPA the results of the project have been encouraging.

For example in Shangcai County more than 93 percent of adolescents who took part in the project confirmed they had learned how the HIV/AIDS viruses were spread.  

In Shenzhen, where millions of single young migrant laborers live the number of premarital abortions has gone down since the program got underway.

While CFPA continues its association with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation it will approach other organizations and government agencies to support its work.

"We will gradually expand the project to cover the central and western cities and rural areas to assist more adolescents in poverty stricken areas," Pan said.

The CFPA will initially concentrate its efforts on educating high-school and college students, the young employed and those working in the sex industry, she added.

"It's just the beginning," Pan said.

"Given the rising number of HIV infections caused by sexual transmission, the high rates of unwanted pregnancies and the growing number of sexually transmitted infections in China in general governments should take active measures to stop the trend," she added.

(China Daily March 29, 2006)