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Phoenix (苦草工作室) is a local, grassroots Chinese organization that provides
services to sex workers living with HIV/AIDS. From June through October, 2010,
Phoenix conducted a community-driven research project to document discrimination
against women living with HIV/AIDS. The result is this report.

Working together, with the help of
Asia Catalyst graduate intern Mike Frick, they drew up a research plan, obtained
informed consent, conducted interviews, and drafted the report. Korekata AIDS
Law Center helped with legal analysis and recommendations, and organized a
meeting at the UNAIDS office in Beijing on the issue of medical discrimination
where Phoenix director Li Man presented the report findings. Asia Catalyst
helped with polishing and translating the final document, downloadable here in
Chinese and English.

The report, co-written with Korekata AIDS Law Center, and Asia
Catalyst, gives an up-close look at
the experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS in China, in their own words. Because people living with the epidemic
— in this case, sex workers — directed the project themselves, the report provides a laser-sharp focus on
exactly where policies need to be re-examined or better implemented – specific
concerns that people from outside the community might have missed.

We’re really proud of the hard work
that Phoenix members did to gather and analyze the evidence. Some members have limited
literacy, and all had to balance health problems, work and family demands with
the project. Still, everyone contributed as part of a team that created an
excellent, hard-hitting, and pragmatic rights report.

To us, this report is evidence (if anyone doubted it) that people at the front lines
of the AIDS epidemic in Asia are not only the
objects of research by others – they are darn good researchers themselves. We’re looking forward to reading the next Phoenix report.

Download the report here, in Chinese and English.