AIDS Care China honoured by the inaugural UN Red Ribbon Award
BEIJING, China, Dec. 1 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Against the backdrop of
World AIDS Day, the United Nations in China presented today AIDS Care China
with the inaugural Red Ribbon Award for the organization’s community-based
approach in combating HIV/AIDS. This marks the first time that a Chinese
organization has received such high-profile recognition for its work in the
area of HIV/AIDS.
(Logo: http://www.prnasia.com/sa/20061107113358-34.jpg )
“The Red Ribbon Award not only recognizes this outstanding group, but it
also recognizes the crucial role communities can play, and are playing, in
partnership with local authorities at a crucial time for the HIV/AIDS
epidemic in China,” said Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator and UN
Development Programme Representative in China, at the award ceremony in
Beijing.
AIDS Care China, founded by Thomas Cai in Guangzhou five years ago as a
modest counseling service for people living with HIV/AIDS, now serves
communities through its care centres located in hospitals and clinics in
Guangdong, Yunnan, Guangxi and Hubei. Its platform has expanded from
counseling and support to helping patients throughout the AIDS treatment
process, working together with local health care providers.
“When we began our programme at the Number 8 Hospital in Guangzhou, we
never dreamed that we would one day reach so many people in so many places,
and that too within just a few years,” Thomas remarked. “We owe this to
our staff and volunteers – people living with and without HIV/AIDS -- who
are truly committed to fighting AIDS together.”
Launched this year, the Red Ribbon Award is led by the UN Development
Programme in partnership with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), and recognizes grassroots leadership in this global campaign. AIDS
Care China is one of 25 communities around the world that were finalists for
the prize. The winners were previously announced in August at the 2006
International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada.
In a World AIDS Day statement from UN headquarters, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan reiterated the themes symbolized by the Red Ribbon Award: shared
accountability and community involvement. “Accountability applies not only
to those who hold positions of power,” said Annan, “but it also applies to
all of us… it requires every one of us to help bring AIDS out of the
shadows, and spread the message that silence is death.”
Malik echoed that sentiment. “The campaign against HIV/AIDS is too
formidable to be fought alone. Governments have recognized this. Non-
government organizations have recognized this. Medical professionals have
recognized this. The innovative work of AIDS Care China demonstrates the
potential offered by true partnership and collaboration.”
In accepting the award, Thomas urged community-based HIV/AIDS
organizations – including AIDS Care China -- to work together and constantly
expand their horizons.
“AIDS Care China promotes the concept that people living with HIV/AIDS
should not isolate themselves in a small circle of fear to be pitied,”
Thomas said. “Rather, we should face the wider realities and embrace
society as a whole, and mobilize more resources to fight the war against
AIDS. Therefore, we have re-defined ourselves as an organization working with
the meaningful participation of all people -- including those living with
HIV/AIDS. The scope of our work will be expanded from treatment and care to
also incorporate HIV/AIDS prevention approaches, including raising awareness
and reducing stigma among the general public.”
As AIDS Care China steps up its efforts even more, the UN Joint Country
Programme on HIV/AIDS in China is offering its support. Together with UNDP,
AIDS Care China is supporting the socio-economic empowerment of women living
with HIV/AIDS through a micro-enterprise scheme in Yunnan and Guangdong. The
aim of this project is to encourage and support established women living with
HIV/AIDS groups to set up and run their own small businesses. In addition to
providing direct employment for these women, the profits from these small
businesses are channeled back into the group to fund their PLWHA support
activities, thus reducing donor dependency while increasing sustainability
and local ownership.
“Helping people help themselves lays a strong foundation for China’s
efforts to stem the spread of this scourge” said Malik. “The work of AIDS
Care China – and indeed of so many community-based organizations in this
vast land – is proof of that. When the history of HIV/AIDS in China is
chronicled in the years to come, we may look back at this moment as a crucial
milestone – a time when community-based HIV/AIDS organizations and local
health authorities formed key partnerships to jointly help turn the tide of
the epidemic in the world’s most populous nation.”
UNDP fosters human development to empower women and men to build better
lives in China. As the UN’s development network, UNDP draws on a world of
experience to assist China in developing its own solutions to the country’s
development challenges. Through partnerships and innovation, UNDP works to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals and an equitable Xiao Kang society
by reducing poverty, strengthening the rule of law, promoting environmental
sustainability, and fighting HIV/AIDS.
http://www.undp.org.cn