[UPDATE] April – June 2012

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AIDS 2012 Comes To Our Backyard 

The largest AIDS conference in the world, brining together over 20,000 individuals, is coming to Washington DC this summer. Asia Catalyst is pleased to award travel scholarships to help four Chinese AIDS activists take part in AIDS 2012, the world’s largest AIDS conference. The four activists – three women and one man — include the mother of a child living with HIV/AIDS, a former sex worker, a rights advocate, and a youth leader. They will speak at the conference, join in roundtable discussions, and share policy recommendations with the UN and international agencies. Together, they represent the next generation of civil society leaders in China’s fight against HIV/AIDS.
In preparation for the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. in July, the China team, together with three student volunteers from the International School of Beijing, has been supporting our three Chinese delegates to finalize their presentations, posters, and design brochures about their organizations.

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[EVENT] We Can End AIDS March For Economic Justice and Human Rights

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July 24th, 2012 Downtown Washington, D.C. 

On Tuesday, July 24, we want you to mobilize in the streets for economic justice, human rights and an end to AIDS as the massive International AIDS Conference meets in Washington DC. 
Over 30,000 people from local DC neighborhoods, across the USA, and worldwide – will march together to illuminate the social and economic costs of putting profit in front of the resources, rights and policies that can end AIDS. 
Together, we will call out to our leaders this clear, compelling truth: 
We can end AIDS in the next generation, through economic justice and human rights to bring prevention, treatment and a cure to all. 

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[NEWS] Quilt 2012: The International AIDS Quilt Turns 25

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With AIDS 2012 (International AIDS Conference) right around the corner, and the 25th anniversary of The AIDS Memorial Quilt, this year Washington, DC is becoming a hub for HIV/AIDS awareness.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt, originally conceived of in 1987, in San Francisco, has now become an international symbol of the human toll of the AIDS epidemic as it aims to “inspire action in the age of AIDS.”

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[NEWS] Lesbian Blood Ban Lifted in China, Though Restrictions on Gay Men Stand

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China’s Ministry of Health announced this month that they have lifted the ban on lesbian blood donation put in place in 1988. The lifetime ban on blood donation by gay men will stand.

Blood donations are an important component of the growing public health system in China and were thrown into the spotlight after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Xian, the director of Beijng-based lesbian organization, Tongyu, applauded the change in guidelines, telling the Global Times “It is also about our dignity and the elimination of blood donation discrimination.”

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[PROFILE] Xiao Bao: Empowering LGBT in China

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Zhao Zheng, known to his friends and coworkers as Xiao Bao, has been working in HIV and STI prevention since 2004. In 2008 he was conferred the title of Youth Ambassador for HIV Prevention by the Tianjin HIV and STI Prevention Coordinating Committee. At 26, he is the youngest of the activists Asia Catalyst is supporting to go to the International AIDS Conference this July. 

Currently the program officer and coordinator for Tianjin Deep Blue Working Group (天津深蓝工作组), Xiao Bao is responsible for, among other things, program management, training, planning, research and evaluation. In 2008, Xiao Bao was appointed a Community Liaison to the China Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM) Health Forum. In collaboration with the Institute of Sexuality and Sociology at Renmin University, he completed research to assess the size of the MSM population in Tianjin, and initiated the MSM Population Ethnic Research Survey in 2010. 
In the run-up to this year’s International AIDS Conference, AIDS 2012, Xiao Bao spoke to Asia Catalyst about his own work.

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