Charity fair calls for young people's AIDS awareness
- By Wu Jin
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E-mail China.org.nc, December 2, 2016
Chi Heng Foundation, a privately-run philanthropic organization, at the 29th World AIDS Day in Beijing on Dec. 1, called for young people to show their love and care for those who have suffered from AIDS and to arm themselves with the correct knowledge about the transmission and prevention of the virus.
A latest report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed there was an increase of 34,401 cases of AIDS from Jan. to Aug., this year. And the disease caused 8,817 deaths during the period.
From the unsterilized blood-selling businesses to unprotected sexual relations, the infected and confirmed AIDS survivors in China have reached 654,000 since the discovery of the first case in 1985.
To curb the spread of the contagious disease, the Chi Heng Foundation, a privately-owned philanthropic organization dedicated to improving the livelihoods of children from AIDS affected villages across the Chinese mainland, partnered with the Beijing office of the Standard Chartered Bank headquartered in Hong Kong and Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology (BIFT) to bring knowledge about the transmission and prevention of AIDS to the students from BIFT and the rest of the country through an online network on Dec. 1.
Although they are confident about their knowledge of AIDS, the students remained uncertain and unclear over the details of the lethal immune virus.
"Can a mosquito spread the disease?" A student asked in the symposium.
"It has never happened before, but there might be a possibility if 7,000 mosquitoes find a target who is unaffected after all of them are fed up with the blood from an AIDS patient, and then sting he or she once in the same spot," Kong Zhouzhou, director of the Beijing office of Chi Heng Foundation, explained.
"What about a French kiss?" another students queried.
"It may need as much saliva as the size of four bottles of mineral water to transmit the disease," Kong answered.
By visiting AIDS affected villages and working as a volunteer teacher in Xihua County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, from March to July, this year, Kong said she and her colleagues will never ask the patient how they got infected because their supreme task is to help the affected people treat their incurable illness in positive ways.
"I still remember a young boy who found out that he should see a doctor long after he had contracted HIV. Skinny and fatigued, he suffered a lot as his immune cells fell to a feeble level through the clinical tests," Kong recalled.
But several years later, Kong was surprised to meet the boy again in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. He had put on some weight and looked healthy. Moreover, he is working as a receptionist in a hotel, thanks to the medicines that the AIDS patients in China get for free.
With the progression of the clinical research, people contracted with AIDS can be tested earlier and treated better with the inventions of the test paper and the medicines that can prevent the transmission from mother to child through pregnancy, delivery and even breastfeeding, even though a vaccine has not yet been developed, Kong said.
Founded in 2002 by To Chung, a Wall-Street-financier-turned philanthropist, Chi Heng Foundation has assisted many children from AIDS affected villages in central parts of China to get better opportunities and lead decent lives.
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