“It is essential to really do this work, in detail, to make stand firm and work, not make a show.” On the 25th of this month, The Henan Provincial Party Secretary Li Keqiang made a work visit to a village in Shangcai County, Zhumadian, an area hard-hit by the epidemic. He went to visit the officials who had earlier moved to the villages in work-assistance teams and made the demand.

In the span of the last year, Li Keqiang has made three trips to Shangcai County to inspect the AIDS prevention work. Shangcai County has 22 villages where HIV/AIDS is widespread. On this work visit, Li Keqiang first went to the hardest-hit village in the County, Wenlou Village in Lugang Township.

On 18 February, the Henan Provincial Party Committee sent 76 officials from their posts to live with city and county officials in 38 village assistance work teams. They will live in 38 villages in high HIV prevalence areas, to be neighbors to people suffering from HIV/AIDS and work for a year.

Li Keqiang said “You must care for them, help them to face difficulties, to build up trust. Shaking hands, chatting and other details, can all express concern. You should change the current state of social discrimination [against people with HIV/AIDS], you should first relieve the emotional burden.” Whenever he arrives at a place, Li Keqiang extends his hand to shake hands and chat with HIV+ people.

“It’s better to live with an uncle than at an orphanage,” on this work trip, a young girl whose parents died of AIDS and who is being raised by her uncle courageously spoke her mind. Li Keqiang immediately summoned the village officials and those officials sent down to the village: “These children do not only need care from society,” he said, “the need the warmth of a family. We must encourage families to adopt these orphans. The government should organize this, to preserve these families’ ability to protect the children’s health and well-being.”

Before 1995, peasants in some poor regions in Southeast Henan saw selling blood as a way out of poverty. Some were infected with HIV during the collection process, and after an 8-10 year window period they are now falling ill with AIDS. In recent years, Henan has sent medical teams to heavily-hit villages, and has provided free anti-retroviral treatment for 4352 people with HIV/AIDS. This has produced a visible improvement in the condition for most of the sufferers, and there has been no report of second-generation transmission.

[source: China Youth Daily]