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.