by Xinhua Writer Wang Jiaquan     

    BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Jihuoheigare has expanded his authority as a degu, an ancient profession of folk mediator in his ethnic Yi community in southwest China, to a new role in the local combat against the modern demon of AIDS: admonishing drug takers to drop the addiction.

    Taking a traditional post revered by local people as knowledgeable and candid, the man in his 60s would use clan dispute arbitration as a platform to alert people to the threat of HIV, a virus that is taking its toll on locals in Liangshan, Sichuan Province.

    A juncture of Sichuan and Yunnan, a province adjacent to the drug source of the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia, the mountainous abode to more than two million ethnic Yi people unfortunately falls into a victim of heroin, and the Yi communities have to face greater risks of HIV infections because of popular needle sharing among drug users.

    Since finding its first HIV carrier in 1995, Liangshan, with a population of 4.3 million, has reported more than 6,000 infection cases, among which over 90 percent are Yi people.

And about 90 percent of the carriers are drug addicts, according to Bai Shige, a researcher at the ethnic studies institute in Liangshan. The Yi woman also leads a grassroots AIDS prevention non-governmental organization named Liangshan Research Society for Gender and Prevention/Cure of AIDS, which takes Jihuoheigare into the local combat against the plague.

　　SAVE AN ETHNIC GROUP UNDER THREAT OF AIDS     

    When Bai and her colleagues came to the old man at his home in Temuli Township, Butuo County in 2003, he was feeling upset with his son and daughter for their addiction to drugs. Bai's visit let the old man glimpse a thread of hope to save his children and, at large, the Yi community plagued by heroin and HIV.

    "If only you were here to do the good earlier!" the old man told Bai, agreeing to give a hand to her organization's AIDS control campaign. He then started to play the new role as a preacher of AIDS prevention, summoning special clan meetings or use the chances of dispute mediation to raise prevention awareness.

    In addition to folk mediators like Jihuoheigare, wizards and clan chiefs are also mobilized by Bai's organization to join in the campaign, as Yi people in the modern era still show an awe to the traditionally authoritative posts and feel attached to their families and clans, according to Bai, who says the people tend to seek protection from wizards when under threat and are afraid of being kicked out of the clan if they show disobedience to the teaching of chiefs and other revered persons.

    "In this way, we're utilizing our traditional culture to help keep people alert to the threat of the modern disease," Bai says.

    As some 70 percent of the Yi population in Liangshan are illiterate and most of them understand no Putonghua, or standard Chinese, Bai's organization has to have pamphlets and videos on AIDS prevention translated into the ethnic language to make it possible that prevention know-how is accessible to them.

    For an ethnic group with an inherent love of songs, Bai's organization also finds the laments of drug addicts and HIV carriers, if composed into folk lyrics, can serve as better exemplum than dry education. So, they encourage those penitents who are skilled in singing to help raise AIDS prevention awareness by telling their own stories and singing out their remorse. Their songs are recorded and made into CDs.

    Since participating in their first international cooperation program, the Sino-British STD/AIDS Prevention Project, the indigenous NGO has been searching for a local therapy to cure the once tranquil land from the plague of AIDS.

    "Each time we bid for an international cooperation project, we would spare no efforts to present our strength and advantages as an indigenous organization in offering a possible solution that fits the situation of an ethnic group with a different culture and social, economic backgrounds," says Bai. "We believe AIDS prevention campaigns must be acclimatized to local conditions, especially so when it comes to ethnic minorities."