This post is based on the presentation that Asia Catalyst scholarship recipient Zhao Gang from Kang Xin Home, a drug user NGO based in Yunnan, China, gave at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna this July. Kang Xin Home (pronounced Kang Shin) aims to bring together Chinese people living with HIV (PLHIV), injecting drug users (IDU), and methadone treatment personnel in order to promote HIV/AIDS prevention, self-help and mutual support. Kang Xin aims to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS on their community, improve the quality of life for drug users and PLHIV, and promote social equality.

The Situation of drug users

There are several main problems that drug users face in their daily life which impact their ability to build an organization. Long-term drug abuse leads to low self esteem. Drug users in our area lack stable employment and therefore a secure livelihood. They are marginalized and lack support and trust from the community they live in. The resulting instability makes it difficult for them to integrate into society. Grassroots nongovernmental organizations (NGO) can benefit drug users and give them hope through both the services they provide and the opportunity to get active. However, organizing drug users faces some distinct challenges that I would like to discuss here. This discussion is part of a process to actively find solutions and to build sustainable organizations by and for drug users in China.

For most drug users and people who work with them, overdose is an urgent issue. Many AIDS, harm reduction, and other drug service organizations have created programs to educate people who use drugs about overdose prevention and response techniques; to distribute naloxone - a safe and highly effective opioid overdose antidote. This document presents arguments that organizations can make to AIDS funders to show that overdose prevention and response matter for HIV programming. Download the document here.

在大多数地方，参与药物服务的人很清楚过量是一个事关重大的问题。从事艾滋病、伤害减低和其他药物服务的许多组织已创建了项目，以便：向吸毒者提供过量预防和应对技巧的教育；发放纳洛酮----这是一种包含在《世界卫生组织基本药品示范清单》中，安全高效的鸦片类药物过量的解药；并且记录过量的普遍程度和应对措施的成效。过量预防对HIV/艾滋病的项目为什么重要，本文作了概括性的评述。在这里下载文件。

By Chan Fei

AIDS Concern is proud to launch its newly published Chinese-language manual POZ in the City, coauthored by AIDS Concern and a group of people living with HIV (PLHIV) experienced in public speaking. We invite you to step forward and work together to combat stigma and prejudice attached to PLHIV. 香港「关怀爱滋」伙拍一群公众演说经验丰富的感染者共同撰写了「正能量计划」手册，希望籍此和各位同工及感染者分享如何进行感染者公众演说，共同为消除对爱滋病和爱滋病病毒感染者的标签及偏见努力。

Download: Handbook in Simplified Chinese

http://www.aidsconcern.org.hk/aids_handbook_schi.pdf

By Mike Frick

From June through early August, I helped Asia Catalyst's partner organization, Phoenix, to train five volunteers in research and rights documentation skills. Phoenix is an NGO that serves women living with HIV/AIDS - many of them sex workers and drug users -- in Gejiu, Yunnan Province, China. The five participating volunteers on our research team are all former drug users, and several of them also work as sex workers. Our goal was to build their capacity to conduct the kind of research that can inform advocacy and make a difference in the lives of the community Phoenix serves.

Ashoka (www.ashoka.org) is the world's largest association of social entrepreneurs -- men and women who are creating new institutions and system-changing solutions for the world's most urgent social problems. Since 1980, Ashoka has pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship, electing and connecting more than 2,000 individuals with system-changing ideas in over 70 countries. And now, Ashoka is headed to China.

by Sally Hancox

This advice can be applied to any information you use to present your organization to the public, including websites, brochures, and logos.

1) Who are you trying to reach?

This is the most important question. What does the audience already know about your organization and the issues you address? You don't need to tell them what they already know; but equally, try not to make assumptions that they already know stuff just because you do.

Microbicide gel: A major breakthrough in AIDS fight

In one of the most attention-grabbing sessions of the conference, the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa reported that a clinical study of 889 women has found that a microbicide gel used before and after sex could reduce risk of HIV infection by nearly 40 percent.  The findings are especially encouraging as six previous microbicide trials have failed over the past fourteen years. The self-applied gel could make it possible for women to reduce the risk of HIV infection.

杀微生物凝胶：艾滋病战役中的主要突破

在其中一场引人注目的会议中，南非艾滋病研究项目中心报告道，通过对889名妇女进行临床研究，他们发现妇女在性活动前后使用一种杀微生物凝胶后，其感染艾滋病病毒的风险将降低40%。在经历过去14年来， 6次杀微生物剂研制的失败之后，这次的发现令人精神为之一振，这种可自主使用的凝胶使得降低妇女感染艾滋病的风险成为可能。

The International AIDS Conference also launched the Vienna Declaration, (中文http://www.viennadeclarationchinese.com/), a statement signed by hundreds of doctors, experts and NGOs calling for decriminalization of drug use.  A number of speakers, panels and protests at the conference also called for the decriminization of HIV transmission and commercial sex work.  A growing body of scientific evidence presented at the meeting shows that decriminalization would be consistent not only with a rights-based approach to the epidemic but also with science-based public health principles.

However, there is some confusion regarding the differences between "decriminalization" and "legalization" - so here is a brief explanation.  

国际艾滋病大会上共有数百名医生签署了新发起的《维也纳宣言》，专家们和非营利性组织呼吁取消对使用毒品定罪。出席会议的许多发言人、专门小组和抗议者也呼吁取消对传播艾滋病与性工作的定罪。会上，越来越多的证据表明除罪化不仅和从权力角度出发抗击疾病的方式相一致，也与从科学的角度出发的公众健康规则相一致。

然而，在合法化与除罪化之间仍然有些令人困惑的地方，下面是对此的简单解释：

Echoing a speech he made in Toronto in June, Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, again called for the closure of compulsory detention centers, where drug users are detained for months or years without trial or due process, under the guise of drug treatment.

和7月在多伦多的演讲相呼应，全球抗击艾滋病、肺结核和疟疾基金会的首席执行官迈克尔·科茨特凯恩又一次呼吁关闭强制戒毒所。强制戒毒所以对药物治疗为名，在没有经过审讯或其他合适程序的情况下，将吸毒人员关押数月甚至数年。

New evidence that criminalization of drug use fuels HIV/AIDS

新证据表明，毒品利用有罪化加剧艾滋病传播

Consent and confidentiality: challenges in HIV testing

A growing chorus of countries, NGOs and foundations at the conference called for routine testing as an effective strategy for HIV prevention. However, a number of panels and sessions at the conference disagreed with this approach, suggesting that rights abuses related to drives to scale up HIV testing can actually undermine AIDS prevention.

同意与保密：艾滋病化验中的挑战

越来越多的国家、非政府组织和基金会都一致呼吁将例行化验作为预防艾滋病的有效措施。但是大会上，许多专门小组和专项会议不同意这个方法，并指出，和急于扩大艾滋病病毒化验相关的权利侵犯，将破坏艾滋病的预防工作。

At the Vienna conference, thousands took to the streets to call for human rights to be integrated into AIDS policies and programs. They gathered in the Heldenplatz, a historic square in front of the Austrian Parliament building, to cheer the heads of UNAIDS, the Global Fund, and international AIDS activists such as Mark Heywood, and to dance and sing with pop singer Annie Lennox.

在维也纳的会议期间，成千上万的人上街集会，要求把人权列入到艾滋病的各项政策和项目中去。集会的地点是位于奥地利国会大楼前的英雄广场，一个具有历史意义的地方。人们相聚一起，为联合国艾滋病规划署署长、全球基金会会长和国际艾滋病活动家如马克·西伍德欢呼，和流行歌手安妮·列克斯一起载歌载舞。