By Ken Oh
Last Monday, the United Nations issued a statement applauding the United States and the Republic of Korea for lifting travel bans on people living with HIV/AIDS(PLWHA). The US ban had been in effect for 22 years, and the South Korean ban had been similarly entrenched. Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, hailed the parallel policy changes as "a victory for human rights on two sides of the globe".
Chinese activists have been using different types of social medias to post their works and raise international awareness to assist special cases. Following are examples of some public ways in which Chinese activists have automatic access to information resources. In the past few years, because of the Internet and increasing work in this sphere by some HIV/AIDS organizations, such as Beijing AIZHIXING Institute, a lot of grass-root organizations have grown in skills on how to use Internet tools for their work and community, especially for posting human rights cases to increase attention.
Ami Evangelista Swanepoel recently moved from the U.S. to her home in the Philippines to start a new health rights NGO, Roots of Health. This week, she shares the disturbing results of their second-ever community health survey.