Employers in China’s Yunnan Province openly discriminate against former drug users living with HIV/AIDS, according to a
joint report released by Asia Catalyst and Kangxin Home, a Chinese community organization.
Staff and volunteers of Kangxin Home interviewed community members and found that many had been fired multiple times from their jobs at small businesses such as auto repair shops, tobacco shops and supermarkets.
We’re delighted to see the fine work of Red Ribbon Home was featured in the Shanghai Daily on December 1, World AIDS Day. As the Daily write, Red Ribbon Home was founded by Zhang Lin, a woman living with HIV/AIDS, in Ruili, Yunnan. Red Ribbon Home provides frontline services to people living with HIV/AIDS, and holds social activities to provide a safe space for the community to connect with one another.
Red Ribbon Home was selected as a member of Asia Catalyst’s 2012 NGO Leadership Cohort program, which is training ten grassroots health rights groups in organizational management and advocacy skills.
We were saddened to hear of the untimely passing of our colleague, teacher and friend, Wang Xiaoguang, one of the founders of Yunnan Daytop in China. Yunnan Daytop is a leader in China’s efforts to provide voluntary and supportive harm reduction services to people who use drugs, and in that role Wang Xiaoguang has been a consistent advocate for drug users and for Chinese grassroots NGOs that serve them. Asia Catalyst and other international agencies frequently called on Xiaoguang for his insights and advice, and we’ll be at a real loss without him to turn to.
Our (unofficial) translation of Daytop’s obituary for him follows, along with the Chinese original text.
Asia Catalyst
In June 2010, we posted this
blog post on how China’s new nonprofit regulations – including new,
stricter regulations on INGOs in China’s Yunnan Province — were affecting
grassroots groups. The essay was reposted to Chinapol (aka C-Pol), an email
list of professionals working on Chinese policy issues. The following
discussion between Asia Catalyst ED, Sara L.M. Davis (also known by her
nickname, Meg) and Shawn Shieh
of Marist College is reprinted here with consent from both.
Shawn Shieh writes:
Meg,
Thanks for writing this up. I’m actually in the middle of translating the
Yunnan regs, so if anyone has the translation already and would be willing to
share, I’d be most grateful.
I had one question and a comment. In your discussion of the Yunnan regs
on foreign NGOs, you note that foreign NGOs will have to apply for approval
with the provincial Civil Affairs and then go on to say that this will make
them [government-organized NGOs, or] GONGOs. I didn’t understand the
connection. How does applying for approval translate into becoming a
GONGO?
From the gleaming airport malls of Beijing to the grittier markets of Yunnan, Asia Catalyst traveled in China to work with local partners on strategic planning and budgeting. On this trip, we spent a few days with Phoenix in Yunnan drafting their plans and budget for the next quarter, and providing some computer training. Phoenix members also lit candles on mid-Autumn festival to commemorate two members who recently died of HIV/AIDS.
