What do two hours mean in the life of a Chinese construction
worker? They can earn 20 yuan (2.6 US dollars) laboring, or they
can attend a 120-minute lecture which could just save their
life.
It certainly changed the mind of 28-year-old Chen Wei, a
laborer. "I came to know that AIDS was not a disease exclusively
belonging to sexually active westerners," admits the strong-built
and dark-skinned Chen, a steel bar worker on a big construction
site in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province.
Chen is one of the 30,667 beneficiaries of a pilot program
started in 2007 by the Chinese Ministry of Construction (MOC) which
aims to teach migrant construction workers about HIV/AIDS.
HARD KNOWLEDGE
It is a shabby single-story house surrounded by a commercial
complex called Shanghe (upper river) International, which is
currently being built. With its 70 sets of desks and chairs, the
100-square-meter room is a part-time training school for workers on
the construction site.
In mid-October 2007, Chen Wei and his fellow workers were asked
by their supervisor to attend a two-hour lecture in the evening
given by teachers from Changsha Station of Construction Engineering
Security Supervision(CSCESS) on the prevention and control of
AIDS.
Chen, who comes from central Hunan's Xinhua County and had
worked on more than 20 construction sites nationwide, thought it
was an interesting topic, but one which he thought had nothing to
do with him.
"I was previously told by others that AIDS was more disastrous
than cancer. But I didn't relate it with us Chinese," says
Chen.
But Chen found he was wrong after teacher Zhou Yiran briefed the
60 trainees on the development of AIDS nationally and in Hunan
Province. By the end of November 2007, the underdeveloped province
has reported 4,974 cases of HIV infection and AIDS, ranking it
eighth in terms of occurrence nationwide. The estimated figure of
cases is five to six times larger.
More alarming for the young man was the fact that HIV/AIDS is
now appearing among the general public in China. Hence why migrant
workers are listed as one of the focus groups in the national
AIDS-prevention blueprint.
In the case of Shanghe International, the majority of the
300-plus workers have no family to accompany them, and Chen knows
that some of the workers go with street prostitutes or with girls
from beauty parlors. It is estimated that Changsha is home to
over20,000 karaoke bars, beauty salons, massage parlors and other
"recreational" spots.
"My friends are not used to using condoms, simply because
wearing them is very uncomfortable," smiles Chen Wei.
At class, Chen also learnt new concepts such as how AIDS can be
passed on from mother to new-born baby. He also learnt that HIV
cannot be passed to human beings by mosquitoes. "The content of our
lessons is compact but useful," echoes Chen's fellow worker
LiDe.
In just two weeks, nine teachers from CSCESS and Hunan Construct
Polytechnic (HCP) gave 87 lectures to over 5,000 construction
workers on 38 construction sites in Changsha and the adjacent
cities of Zhuzhou and Xiangtan.
Trainers believe the lectures have achieved satisfactory
results. The rate of correct responses to a nine-question test was
raised from less than 60 per cent before the training to 83.8
percent after, according to HCP figures.
REAL ACTION
What Chen learnt impelled him to change his lifestyle. He vowed
never again to go to unofficial health care clinics. "No matter how
cheap their service is, I will never visit underground clinics in
the future for injection or other treatment: it's dangerous, isn't
it?"
Chen, who had attended a senior high school, was also chosen by
the station to assist the lectures throughout the process. One of
his responsibilities was informing those who did not attend
lectures about AIDS prevention.
He also reminds his friends who go out for fun to take condoms."
Of course, I won't force them to use condoms because all of us are
adults, but a friendly suggestion can be effective."
This year, Chen is going to marry his fiancee, who works as a
waitress at a hotel in Changsha. "We'll live a happy life, as I
know how to live a decent life," he laughs.
However, besides Chen are a lot more workers who need educating
about HIV/AIDS just as much as he did.
Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics indicate that
there are about 200 million migrant workers throughout China, who
move from the countryside into cities to seek jobs and other
opportunities. Construction workers make up one fourth of all the
migrant workers, according to Vice Minister of Construction Huang
Wei.
Jing Jun, an academic studying AIDS policy at Beijing's Qinghua
University, says migrant workers are susceptible to HIV/AIDS
because of their constant mobility, loneliness and lack of
knowledge.
As early as 2005, MOC kicked off a campaign of publicizing AIDS
prevention in the construction sector, but the substantial work did
not get started until May 2007, when it signed a contract of
cooperation with the State Council AIDS Working Committee
Office.
Initially, MOC used funding applied through China AIDS Roadmap
Tactical Support Project (CHARTS) under the State Council office
and trained 1,000 officials and 113 teachers in the construction
sector, who gave further training to migrant workers in six
targeted provinces and five cities, including Hunan.
Chen Xiaoying, a teacher from HCP, was among the first batch of
"seed teachers". With an educational background of psychology, Chen
combined what she learned through CHARTS training with vivid
PowerPoint Presentations (PPTs), cases and multimedia.
"Lecturing to the migrant workers requires an easy-going
method," Chen says. She remembered that she focused on "opportunist
infection" at the first lecture, but the audience looked lost at
sea and indifferent. "What they care about is how the disease is
transmitted, so I spontaneously made changes."
Zhou Yiran agreed that simple language was appropriate for the
workers. For instance, the wording of "security is guaranteed by
helmets, and health is secured by condoms" has become a
well-received idiom for Chen Wei and his fellow workers.
TOUGH CHALLENGE
Chen Xi, an expert on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease
(STD) from Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, applauds the AIDS-prevention training at the part-time
schools on the construction sites. "It is a meaningful test of
merging disease prevention and safe work," he says.
Liu Jinglin, project manager of a local construction project
named Xizi Huayuan (Xishi Garden), believes the public health
training invigorates the workers. "You know, it's hard to organize
the workers in view of their different backgrounds and regions, but
the canteen was packed with workers whenever there was a lecture.
Even the workers' wives and children showed up."
Not all the enterprises were cooperative. Some of them refused
the AIDS-prevention training on the excuse that it would hold back
the pace of construction.
More complicated is the geo-economical factors Hunan faces,
warns Prof. Chen. A transport hub in the heart of China, Hunan
links economically-developed coastal provinces and southwest
China's Yunnan Province, which tops the list for AIDS victims in
China.
There are about 12 million migrant workers nationwide whose home
province is Hunan. A noticeable trend over the years is that some
migrant workers return because they are not covered by the local
medical insurance where they work, Chen says.
In spite of all the difficulties, MOC is determined to expand
the scope of experiment. "We hope to cover every construction site
on the basis of part-time schools," says Sun Meiyan, deputy
director of the Center of Human Resources Development of MOC
(MOCHR), which is in charge of AIDS-prevention training for migrant
construction workers.
Starting from early 2007, the ministry launched the construction
of part-time schools for migrant construction workers, and there
are now more than 10,000 such schools scattered throughout China
covering three million workers.
Sun also calls for a closer inter-ministerial cooperation. She
says MOC might be able to make more contributions to Sunshine
Project under the guidance of Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), which
aims at building up the vocational capacity of farmers before they
go into cities. In the past three years, 11 million farmers have
received training under the huge project.
The instillation of AIDS-prevention knowledge in the Sunshine
Project could bring down the occurrence of HIV among the
construction workers, says Sun. "After all, AIDS prevention is a
job that needs the common participation of all the related
governments."
(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2008)