PTE brings HIV education to China's schools

The teacher started from scratch in a recent lesson on AIDS to sixth-graders: “Nobody ever dies of AIDS or HIV; they die of a common illness because their body is too weak to fight anymore.” Twelve-year-old hands shot up to answer questions such as, “What’is the difference between AIDS as a disease and HIV, the virus?” There was no squirming in seats, no giggling over broken taboos and no reason to look away because the kids were learning to about how the disease affects the body rather than the means of HIV transmission.

This approach was pioneered by Gabriel Suk, founder of the nonprofit, Prevention Through Education (PTE). After working on AIDS prevention in South Africa, Suk came to China three years ago and founded an NGO to raise awareness and dispel the discrimination that surrounds the disease. “People aren’t getting tested because they’re afraid of being discriminated against. Who goes to the doctor and refuses a blood pressure test? No one,” explains Suk. “Our program is founded in anti-discrimination, because if people never get tested, they can’t get treated, and they never stop spreading the virus.”

In his survey of 400 Chinese middle school students, Suk found that three fourths believed regular exercise might help prevent the spread of HIV. Less than one third of students would feel comfortable befriending someone with HIV. And only 16 percent knew there were medicines that can slow the advancement of the virus in one’s body.

This knowledge gap, Suk explains, can mean that people with AIDS lose their jobs, are ostracized from their families, or looked down upon as some kind of bad person. Stigma prevents people from getting tested for the disease.

“Worldwide only about 10 percent of HIV positive people actually know they have it,” Suk points out. “A major reason that people don’t get tested is they are afraid of how drastically their lives would change if they tested positive. Some of this would be health related, but a majority of the change would be the way others look at and treat them.”

As a public health policy, China has been trying to raise awareness about AIDS, but primarily among adults. “We look at education as a way to change the way communities as a whole think, respond to, and live with the HIV virus,” Suk said. “The world needs to change the way we look at the virus.” Little by little, classroom by classroom, he is prompting such a change.

–Blake Stone-Banks

The Details

Prevention Through Education
Where: Schools around Beijing
Web: www.the-hutong.com