FHI Pioneers Leading Prevention Model for MSM in China

JANUARY 2009 — FHI is playing a key role in helping to reduce the risk of HIV and STIs among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China's Guangxi Province. In 2006, with funding support from USAID, FHI responded to the rising HIV prevalence rate among MSM in China by collaborating with the Nanning Center for Disease Prevention and Control to conduct sexual health screening tests in Nanning, Guangxi's capital. A month later, FHI launched a comprehensive HIV/STI prevention intervention for MSM, including a drop-in center and outreach activities offering HIV/STI services and education.

Qualified healthcare providers and a group of well-trained peer educators closely linked with the MSM community staff the drop-in center, which offers a safe space for MSM to discuss issues related to HIV and other important topics. The center consolidates voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) and STI services and referrals to care and treatment, providing MSM with easily accessible services. Peer educators conduct outreach activities to promote safer sexual behavior and VCT and STI services to the MSM community in places where MSM gather, such as saunas, gay bars, parks, and public toilets. The project also makes use of innovative forms of outreach, including an MSM website, telephone hotline services, and chat rooms using ICQ, a free instant-messaging program—all aimed at reaching "hidden" MSM with information and support.

FHI recognizes the critical role played by the peer educators and healthcare providers in reaching the MSM community, and has offered a series of trainings on capacity building, staff morale building, and other skills that will help the project's staff continue to provide MSM in Guangxi with high-quality, non-stigmatized services.

In February 2008, the United Nations Technical Working Group on MSM and HIV/AIDS in Beijing officially named the project one of the best VCT models for MSM in China.

PHOTO: An FHI program officer pre-tests "behavioral risk cards" with men who have sex with men. (FHI/China)

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