My first exposure to being deaf in China was inteh airport when what appeared to be a group of high schoolers were waiting by the gate signing to each other.  Initially my curiosity lead me to wonder if the signs they were using were the same as the ones others used in the US, Uk, or other location.  Was apple still apple?

In the next line of thought though I realized that I had been in China 3 years (at that time), and this was the first time that I had been exposed to the deaf in China.

In overcoming stigmas of any kind, education plays a critical role, and as a part of this process it is important that public awareness campaigns are linked in some way to overcoming the unknowns of a disability.

In China, being deaf is not a statistical anomaly by any means:

The latest statistics show China has about 20 million people with hearing disabilities, which is about 20 percent of the world’s total. Among them, more than 800,000 are children below the age of six. The number is increasing at a rate of 20,000 to 30,000 kids per year.

So, when I see that China’s Association of the Deaf will celebrate International Day of the Deaf through a three day event (Oct 30 - Nov 2) , I see another step in this process taking place.

Initially designed to give the children:

“a chance to learn more about treatment from recovery institutions, hearing aid companies and alike,” said Yangwho is also a councilor of China Disabled Persons’ Federation. “Three local deaf speakers will also share their experiences in learning how to speak.”

I also hope that the event will be showcased in a way that opens up the minds of a wider audience.  In Shanghai, I am now seeing on a semi-regular basis the deaf communicating on the streets with one another, and while I have yet to see an act of ignorance in their presence occur - my conversations with others who are handicap will admit that public stigmas still exist for them.

Growing up in America, getting CPR certified was something that everyone could do should they want to.

following the 5.12 earthquake I thought about this more and more, especially as many of the volunteers who showed up in Sichuan did so without basic knowledge of first aid.

It is encouraging to see that Ruijin Hospital and the Luwan Government are now making it possible to learn CPR in Shanghai.

The training is a collaborative effort by Ruijin Hospital and the Luwan District Health Bureau. It’s part of their campaign to provide more comprehensive services to people with common diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, breast cancer and cardiovascular and cerebral ailments.

It is especially important given the grim statistics of having a heart attack in China:

Since 70 to 80 percent of heart attacks take place outside a hospital and less than 1 percent of such patients are saved in China, the hospital decided to provide education and training in first-aid skills to community doctors, ambulance staff, patients, family members and police patrol officers.

only 1% save rate…

When first learning of China’s HIV situation, it was blood contamination in rural areas of China and drug abuse in southwest China that were most frequent.  However, this has changed.

Sexual activity has replaced intravenous drug use as the major cause of the spread of AIDS in China, a report from the Ministry of Health said.

Whether it is ravers in Shanghai, or truckers along China’s new national highway, sexual transmission has now become the leading means by which HIV/ AIDS is being spread, and in my opinion this will be a turning point.

The report found the ratio of sexually transmitted infections had risen steadily, with heterosexual and male homosexual transmission climbing to 37.9 percent and 3.3 percent in 2007, respectively, from 10.7 percent and 0.4 percent in 2005, respectively.

With historically the largest clusters bring found in the southwest from opium usage, in Henan/ Anhui from blood contamination, and Guangdong from a mix - the merging of these clusters through sexual activity will make it much more difficult to slow the spread of this disease, and it will surely slow the prevention measures as well (education programs will have to grow in geographic size).

The relatively low rate of condom use was to blame, the report said.

A point, another report just released by the UN AIDS drives home following a survey of 6,000 people

More than 48 per cent of respondents in six of China’s major cities said they believed they could be infected with HIV through mosquito bites, while 83 per cent had never looked up information on HIV/AIDS and 30 per cent did not know how to use a condom, UNAIDS said in a report.

Nearly 65 per cent said they would not be willing to live with someone infected with HIV, 48 per cent said they were unwilling to eat with an HIV-infected person, and 41 per cent were unwilling to work with an HIV-infected person, the report said.

to learn more about HIV/ AIDS in China, here are some links:

UNAIDS China

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Red Cross Society of China:HIV Programme 2008 - 2010 (PDF)

If there were ever a program in the waiting, it is this one, and I challendge a firm that has been looking for an out of the box program to take this one on.

working with orphanes of prisoners, this orphanage is dealing with some of the fundamental issues and stigmas that China faces.  the children, not offenders themselves, essentially are on their own and were it not for the founder and director of this orphanage they wouldn’t have a place to go.

In this interview, Environmental Defense China’s Director Zhang Jianyu gives us an introduction to the organization’s work, EDF’s experience as a foreign organization and discusses some environmental hurdles China faces. Segments I found very interesting relate to how actions have to be adpated in the China setting due to different political and legislative structures.

For example, since many bureaucracies regulate once single industry in China, EDF China is working with industries instead of the government because industry is more consistent than the bureaucracies that control them. Another interesting segment relates to how Mr. Zhang feels that China is already environmental consciousness but finds it very hard to get people to act sustainably.

The reason he gives is because of the traditional reliance on the government to act first and the population to follow. He comments that China does not have a history of people’s involvement with decision-making and, therefore, people do not take the initiative to make long-term concrete change. This is why Mr. Zhang feels that it is even more important to find the economic incentives here in China to bring about this change.

Part 1

Part 2

One of the early questions after the quake was where the billions of dollars raised would go, and would the money spent be spent in the right way.  Discussions on rescue vs. relief were taking place, and no matter what the discussion focus was, it was clear that a long term approach was going to be needed.

Chinese gov’t to offer subsidies to students from quake zone highlights of the most recent initiatives to support families who were affected, and relieve some of the short term burdens that are surely on the mind of many in the area.

A joint circular approved by the State Council on Friday said the aid was targeted at poor students from high schools (including secondary vocational schools and ordinary high schools) and universities (including general universities and higher vocational colleges) in the May 12 quake zone covering Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces and 51 counties, cities and districts in Chongqing Municipality.

Where I particularly like this program, as it is being reported, is simply that many families were already struggling with these fees and were having to make tough decisions to ensure their children were able to get a proper education.

Charlie McElwee, of the famed China Environmental LAw blog, is a lawyer with Squire, Sanders, and Dempsy and a professor at Shanghai’s Jiaotong University.

Last week he sat down with me to discuss the condition of China’s environmental law and policy, and it did not take us long to expand that to include a number of other issues. With so much happening so fast, what I enjoyed through this conversation was that Charlie was able to tie together his 20+ experience of experience in the US as an environmental lawyer to his 3 years in China.

It was an entertaining and educational half hour, and I hope you will enjoy the clips.

Part 1: Policy, the rule of law, and enforcement

Part 2: The role of China’s new ministry, NGOs, and education