On their day-to-day visits one of the Field Officers together with the Troop Commander came across a man whose life changed at the blink of an eye due to his view on his HIV status. The man told them his story about how his life had made a sudden turn after being diagnosed HIV positive.

The man is 40 years old and comes from one of the Townships in Butuo County. After he was confirmed HIV positive, he felt his life was completely destroyed. He lost hope for living.  He lost his job and ended up having to endure what he felt was mental torture and solitude, he decided to leave his home and went to East China to search for a new life. After having worked in the East as migrant worker for a long time, he came home last month. He feels his wife is the only kindness to him, the only person he can rely on. As for his innocent child what he can only say is “sorry”. Each time his child tells him that he has tooth ache or belly ache he feels pain in his heart.

Many people are eager to learn and understand more about HIV/AIDS.

4 years ago he was a man with a successful career, and full of hope about his future. But all this changed all of a sudden - in one day. One morning in March 2005, Center for Disease Control informed him he had been confirmed HIV positive after a blood test. He totally collapsed. He did not want to work anymore and was afraid to go to hospital to collect his test results. At that time he and his wife had bank savings of one hundred thousand Yuan and their plan was to earn three hundred thousand Yuan in total to build a house. However, when he found that he was infected with HIV, he felt his career was ruined, he could not think of earning more money to fulfill their dream and he also lost all his friends. He felt his life was full of discrimination and pain. To make matters worse, his wife and new born baby were all tested HIV positive. An ordinary family of three had suddenly turned into an HIV positive family.

Making people understand more about HIV/AIDS takes some effort.

All he hopes for is that more people will hear his story and know about HIV/AIDS, so that they will not get infected. And that no one will discriminate against people with HIV.
Upon hearing the story the Troop Commander and the Field Officer took their time to inform and educate the man and his wife about HIV/AIDS. They helped them understand that being positive did not mean that a person was already sick and about to die. They told them that by taking treatment one could prolong his life for many years. Thus they invited the man and his family to go to hospital where they were put on treatment. The Field Officer continuously supported this family to make sure they could stick to their treatment plan and to educate them on how to maintain their health.

One on one visits make it possible for people to speak out freely.

Such are the stories and situations which the TCE Field Officers in Butuo come across every day in their work. The Field Officers work tirelessly in trying to bring hope to people who are infected and who are in desperate need of hope. Door to door visits, education and counseling helps to make people understand more about HIV/AIDS, how it is spread, how to avoid infection and the importance of knowing one’s HIV status. When more people understand that “being infected does not mean one will infect anyone who comes close to them” the discrimination rate goes down. It also helps those infected to understand that being HIV positive is not the end of the world, but that they can live longer if they adhere to their treatment plan. They can continue to work, start-up projects and live a normal life like any other human being. All they need to do is to take care of their health and avoid re-infection or infecting others. TCE Field Officers work hard in mobilizing the community to work together in stopping the spread of HIV and in helping those who are already infected to start up programs which can help them live normal lives.

Discrimination is an issue which the Field Officers have to educate the community about.

The Troop Commander works together with Field Officers in the fight against HIV/AIDS.


A brief summary of the project:
TCE Butuo is a 3.5 years HIV/AIDS project operating in Butuo County, Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The idea of the project during the 3.5 years campaign is to achieve total control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Butuo County reaching out to a population of 100 000 people. The project does one on one, door to door visits to all villagers reaching out to them with health education, mobilization and voluntary home based counseling and testing. The project furthermore involves a Passionate Network and training of local leaders and influential people who support in information dissemination and mobilization work. Health education provided by the project includes HIV/AIDS knowledge, basic knowledge about STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases), mobilizing pregnant women for prenatal care and hospital delivery, providing condoms and explaining condom use to the sexually active singles and couples.
 
This project is funded by EU and HPP Baltic.
This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Butuo Women Federation TCE Project and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.