Brick 9 - Tianjin Hai He AIDS Support Community
To donate via bank transfer, you can find more information HERE
In late 2007 Sr. Zhai of Jinde Charities introduced Bricks to two men who were struggling with an idea. Da Hua and Long Li wanted to ensure that People living with Aids (PLA’s) like themselves would receive in their home city, the same kind of support that they had received in Beijing. Da Hua in particular, an older man and been given new lhope when he visited Beijing’s drop in centre for PLAs called the Red Ribbon Centre. He wanted to pass on to his peers in Tianjin what he had received but found the climate was not as easy in his home city.
Tianjin is a large city, but its citizens have not been exposed to the media campaigns which have made Beijing based programmes for PLAs more accepted in society. Hospital Staff are still more unwelcoming, official agencies more bureaucratic and society in general more willing to deny the problem. This is not the context in which support groups for PLAs can thrive. Undaunted they decided to move. Armed with a cell phone and little else they began a hotline for people coming to terms with their new status. Without funds, they paid for the service themselves, but quickly came to appreciate that without a place to meet, a support service would be impossible. Meeting clandestinely in public places only compounded the anxieties of the very people they were trying to help and added to the air to their sense of being faceless pariahs in their own city.
Da Hua needed help but had no place to go. He had had a good relationship with Sr. Zhai from their time together in the Red Ribbon Centre, a call to her, led to a call to Bricks and the beginning of cooperation with the Great Wall Appeal. With Bricks they worked out a plan and started in a very simple way. They have called their fledging support group Tianjin Hai He have a membership of 22, when in January they had two! As they have grown, finding meeting rooms have become even more of a challenge than they were in the beginning. the Daughter’s of Charity in Tianjin have been very generous in allowing the use of their common room for monthly gatherings and Sr Zhai is a regular visitor.
At the beginning of the year, Bricks gave a small grant of 4,000 RMB to start them off. From January to June, they established that they that there is a need, that they can meet that need and just how much it will cost to meet that need for the coming half year and beyond, these costs are beyond our limited reserves, and require a Bricks Appeal to move forward. The group is up and running but to develop needs a defined meeting place, a drop in centre to compliment the “hot line” They have asked Bricks to work with them in providing that centre, a rented apartment for one year so that they can get on their feet, create a sense of confidence among the members and also to begin to find the donor base that can help them move to the next level. At a meeting in June the put forward their budget for the year and Bricks is happy to present Tianjin Hai He to you as being worthy of your concern.
Bricks, the Great Wall Appeal, recommends Tianjin Hai He to you for your support and your donations will guarantee the service the offer for the remainder of this year and the first half of 2009.
The target is: , not a lot of money, but it is all helping to build a Great Wall of charity in China, one brick at a time