Across China: Chinese NGO explores new mode of AIDS prevention education

BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- "What are the essential conditions for pregnancy?" "What is safe sex?" "If you or your partner fell pregnant, what would you do?"

In a rural middle school in Yingjiang County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, teacher Nie Yongxian is giving a ninth grade class a sex-ed lesson.

The students are not shy and offered straightforward answers.

This class -- "Youth Love Cabin," is sponsored by the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth (APEPCY), a non-profit organization established by China Charities Aid Foundation for Children and the Chinese Society of Education, to promote sex education in Chinese schools to help prevent HIV/AIDS transmission among the youths.

While the number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) on the Chinese mainland continues to rise and there is a trend for younger transmissions, there is still no official sex education in schools to teach students to protect themselves.

Established in 2006, APEPCY has sponsored 681 AIDS prevention cabins or "Youth Love Cabin" nationwide, exploring a new way to teach AIDS prevention and sex education.

YINGJIANG EXPERIENCE