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UNDP recognizes community-based AIDS response in China

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

Source: United Nations Development Programme
collection