·Biography·

Zhang Yinjun initiated the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth (referred to as APEPCY) in 2006. She currently serves as the deputy director of the Women and Children Committee of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, a member of the China Economic and Social Council, a member of the National Expert Group on HIV/AIDS Prevention Education in Schools, the director of the APEPCY Office, and the chairwoman of the Beijing Changier Education Foundation.

■ Narrator: Zhang Yinjun, chairwoman of the Beijing Changier Education Foundation

■ Recorded by: Jin Yong, all-media journalist with China Women's News

December 1st marks the World AIDS Day. Zhang Yinjun, the chairwoman of the Beijing Changier Education Foundation, who has long been engaged in HIV/AIDS education and prevention among adolescents, has been extremely busy recently. The huge publicity posters of she and Kang Hui for AIDS prevention, the presenter of CCTV and current image ambassador of the APEPCY, are repeatedly displayed in busy shopping plazas and other crowd gathering places. Having just returned to Beijing after participating in the opening ceremony of 2023 World AIDS Day themed promotional month in Hunan Province, Zhang shared with us a touching story of her nearly 20-year long journey in HIV/AIDS prevention and control.

From APEPCY to Changier

Engaging in the APEPCY actually involves a process of gradual exploration. Around 2006, I oversaw the magazines in the former Ministry of Health. At that time, college student suicide incidents were frequently reported in newspapers. A survey we conducted targeting this group revealed that apart from the academic pressures perceived by the public, 44% of the reasons for university student suicides were related to emotional issues and sexual relationships. One of the reasons a female university student committed suicide was her suspicion of being infected with HIV/AIDS. The results of this survey deeply touched me. As a mother, how can I protect my child from similar harm? We must take action at the source. Thus, the idea of establishing a social organization to promote sexual health education among adolescents became increasingly clear in my mind.

In 2006, with the support of the China Charity Federation and The Chinese Society of Education, the APEPCY was officially launched. The first thing I wanted to do at that time was to set up educational spaces for aids prevention at schools.

The first step is always the hardest. We started making calls to various schools to raise funds for setting up such spaces under the name of the research team for "The Eleventh Five-Year Plan" key project "Applied Research on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Sexual Health Education with Film Courses” with the Chinese Society of Education. In that era when people were terrified at the mere mention of AIDS, every call I made to over 600 schools nationwide was declined.

Not only was it difficult to raise funds, but it's also difficult to recruit people. A girl who had promised to come changed her mind due to oppositions from her family.

My friends around me also failed to understand my actions, and they said that what I was doing was like building a skyscraper with sand.

Providing sexual education for adolescents is akin to tightening the tap at the source of AIDS. This is a valuable cause that someone must do. If others won't do it, I will. Finally, with the support of Bai Yansong, the first ambassador of the APEPCY, our first educational hut for aids prevention was established at Fushun No.2 Senior High School, Liaoning Province. We named it a "hut" because we believe in the idea that if one can do small things well, like cleaning a hut, he can do everything well.

In 2009, Bai Yansong suggested changing the word "艾" in "青艾工程" (APEPCY) into "爱". (APEPCY was renamed Changier in English) "艾" and "爱" are both pronounced "i" in Chinese, but the former means AIDS, while the latter means love. I particularly acknowledge this name, isn't everything we do out of deep love for the children? Isn't what we provide to children just to enable them to learn self-love and to love others?

The rapid development of Changier Huts nationwide began in 2014. Later, with the strong support of CPC and governments at all levels, and thanks to the enthusiastic donations from caring individuals from all walks of life, 625 Love Cottages had been built across the country by the tenth anniversary of the launch of the APEPCY in 2016. As of this year, the number has reached 1,334, covering 104 areas in 29 provinces nationwide, with a direct beneficiary population of over 30 million. Sexual health education has finally transformed from being a "taboo" to an essential lesson for the growth of adolescents. Statistics show that in 2022, since the two major infection route - blood and mother-infant – have been basically blocked during the years, 97.6% of the newly reported AIDS cases were transmitted through sexual contact, indicating that our choices at that time were not only correct but also ahead of the time.

From China to the United Nations

This year, Changier received two awards: the "Love Education Campus Tour" project was awarded the China Charity Awards, and I personally received the "International Women and Children's Education Achievement Award" from the American Chinese United Association. The reason for the awards was to recognize the contributions made by me and my team in the field of AIDS prevention education and women and children's education. The "Sexual Education for AIDS Prevention" model that we've explored and implemented has received high praise from the UNAIDS and has been lauded as a "social vaccine" for preventing HIV among adolescents.

After winning the awards, many people asked me how our " AIDS Prevention by Sexual Education" model actually worked. For example, when we initiated our project in Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province, we first selected six schools from one township to establish Changier Huts as pilots, and provided professional training for the teachers responsible for the project at these schools. Gradually, we expanded the scope of the pilots. In less than three years, we achieved full coverage for all schools in the county. To better manage its operations, Changier established the Changier Work Base in Dehong prefecture, where Yingjiang County is located. With our initiative, the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial People's Congress, Yunnan Education Department, Yunnan Civil Affairs Department, Yunnan Women's Federation, and other departments have all taken action and launched the APEPCY Base in Yunnan Province, jointly setting up the Changier Huts. In just three to four years, the Changier Huts have been replicated from one township to one county, and even to one province. To date, we have trained a cumulative total of 22,000 teachers nationwide.

As the project progressed, we also started to pay attention to the social issues that came with the project. For instance, to address the issue of AIDS orphans, we provided medication and health education guidance to the only school in China specialized in adopting and educating AIDS orphans in Linfen, Shanxi Province. Now, some of the first batch of students have been admitted to universities. During the project, we also assisted more than 35,000 children in need. To enhance parents' awareness of AIDS prevention, we have also offered "Parents Class" at the schools where the Love Cottages are located.

This year, to raise public awareness about AIDS prevention, we have produced a charitable film titled Changier. The movie is based on true stories and focuses on the current living conditions and plights of individuals with HIV/AIDS. It tells the story of two teenagers seeking self-redemption and being redeemed. The creative team and actors are all students and teachers from the Beijing Film Academy. The film is currently in the post-production stage and is expected to be released next year.

I live in China, my friends find it odd that I received an award in the United States. Actually, due to the fact that AIDS is a global public health issue, our project has always been the focus of the United Nations' attention.

In December 2015, to achieve the United Nations' goal of "Zero Aids" by 2030 (zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, zero aids-related deaths), the then UNAIDS Country Director for China, Catherine Sozi and I launched the "Mothers Worldwide Against AIDS with Love" international charity signing campaign in Beijing, where children and young parents became the main force of this campaign.

In September 2016, Michel Sidibé, the then Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the UNAIDS, led a delegation to visit the Changier Huts at the Ruili Ethnic Middle School, Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province. He highly praised the efforts of Changier and passionately stated, "The work we are doing in adolescent sex education is the most important, the most challenging, and requires the most courage. I hope that we can share these successful experiences with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative."

Having engaged with the United Nations in our work, we have been applying for the special consultative status with the ECOSOC since 2016 and finally obtained it in 2019. According to rough statistics, Changier has participated in 37 activities related to the United Nations after that.

A few times were special memorable: On March 13, 2017, I attended the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women held at the UN headquarters in New York and was featured in a special interview, in which I elaborated on key issues such as maternal education and women's empowerment. Subsequently, I successively participated in the 65th, 66th, and 67th sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women. On May 4, 2019, I was invited to participate in the "Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations and Asian Civilization Week" activities, representing Asian women to call for attention to gender equality, the elimination of gender discrimination, and focusing on women's empowerment and the education of women and children as some of the most pressing issues related to the development of Asia. In September 2022, during a video statement at the 51st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, I detailed the accomplishments of China's youth sexual health education and introduced the experiences of the Chinese government and the social organizations of the CAPD Central Committee in carrying out education support and the promotion of AIDS prevention education in Xizang and Xinjiang…

We present China's achievements in human rights development, the protection of women and children's rights, and HIV/AIDS prevention and control to the international community from a non-governmental perspective. The consultative status has provided the foundation with a broad platform for a deep involvement in non-governmental diplomacy and global governance. Over the past few years, we have received four letters of commendation from the foreign affairs department of Beijing, praising us for telling China's and Beijing's stories well to the outside world, which I personally also take great pride in.

This year's December 1st marks the 36th World AIDS Day, and the APEPCY's journey in the fight against AIDS has spanned 18 years. This year's theme for AIDS prevention and control activities is "Converging Social Forces, Joining Hands to Fight AIDS." We believe that with the collective efforts of our whole society, the goal of “Zero AIDS” by 2030 proposed by the United Nations will definitely be achieved, and at the very least, it should be accomplished first in China.

(Source: China Women's News)