Red Ribbons Symbolize Action

Red Ribbons Symbolize Action

By staff reporter ZHOU CHANG

WHAT if the condom that my partner and I are using ruptures during intercourse? This is the sort of typical question that Wang Kerong receives by phone on a daily basis. She has over a thousand contacts stored on her phone, many of which are her friends living with HIV/AIDS or associated with those who are. She has developed such an intimacy with them that they feel they can count on her for help, day or night. They reach out through a simple phone call.

Creating the Red Ribbon Home

Wang Kerong is not only a nurse at the Beijing Ditan Hospital but also office director of the Beijing Red Ribbon Home, an organization dedicated to helping those living with HIV/AIDS. In 1997, the first time she encountered AIDS patients and witnessed their crushing despair and helplessness, Wang was moved. All day long, they would just hide themselves away in their beds, their bodies curled up and their faces buried in their quilts. Wang Kerong realized that those affected with this devastating disease needed not only medical treatment, but also psychological support, care and love.

Her cell phone is always ringing, but Wang answers each call with patience, listening attentively, offering her suggestions and finally consoling the caller. As she says, "This is something that's not so hard to do, but to those affected with HIV/AIDS, who badly need such contact, it makes a significant difference to know that there are people out there that care about them."

The Home of Red Ribbon was founded in 1999 at the Beijing Ditan Hospital, originally set up as its special department for the treatment of HIV carriers and AIDS patients. In January 2005, it was officially registered as a non-governmental organization.

"From that time on, the Home of Red Ribbon was no longer simply a part of the Ditan Hospital; it belongs to Beijing, and even to the whole country," remarks Mao Yu, president of Ditan Hospital and concurrent vice president of the Home of Red Ribbon.

"The greatest difficulty and challenge to overcome is not the disease itself, but rather the social stigma that it carries," says Mr. Xu, a former travel agency project manager. Assuredly, the Home of Red Ribbon is a big family consisting of medical staff, volunteers and patients who get along like brothers and sisters. "Here there're no discriminatory glances that we so dread, nor people steering clear of us as though we had the plague," added Mr. Xu.