I read a very interesting article on the UCLA Asia Institute website about fighting aids in the Golden Triangle (Thailand, Vietnam and southeastern China). The article was discussing the grassroots approach to curbing the spread of HIV, particularly in China and Vietnam, where there is a major drug problem leading to the spread of the virus. Because of the stigma that goes with AIDS, people in the towns and villages did not want to admit there was a problem, let alone deal with it. UCLA Professor Roger Detels worked with village amd community leaders in one village in China to educate the community about injecting drugs and how it often led to HIV. He involved the police, teachers and many other community workers in getting the message out via videos, posters, meetings and discussion programs. Suddenly people were talking about the problem of HIV and what the community could do together to fight the problem. 18 months later he went back to the village to see if this grassroots approach had worked and found there had been a significent reduction in new drug users.
I have read many articles about the rise of HIV in China and the governments lack of prevention programs and, certainly, this idea of involving the grassroots is often used in the Western world. However, what particularly stuck in my mind is a comment by Detel when talking about the effectiveness of community involvement. "One thing China does well" Dextel explained " is imposing the will of the community on the individual".
[Edit by="kllewellyn on Jan 25, 9:17:08 AM"][/Edit]
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